


The Hag's Jinx

by twinklingpaopufruit



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Genderbending, Kid Fic, M/M, Superpowers, no don't worry there is no underaged gross things, tags will be added as they go, these are just tropes im introducing, trust me - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 21:13:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9345317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twinklingpaopufruit/pseuds/twinklingpaopufruit
Summary: "Everyone needs to calm down," Seungcheol spoke, voice higher pitched than usual."Ah yes, because waking up as a girl is entirely normal."Seventeen takes it upon themselves to piss off every old lady in South Korea and suffer the consequences.





	1. Honey, why are the kids now kids? pt.1

Pledis sure loved to drive Seungcheol to the point of committing voluntary manslaughter. See: voluntary manslaughter.

Voluntary Manslaughter: An intentional killing in which the offender had no prior intent to  kill, such as killing that occurs in the “heat of passion.”

After filming One Fine Day and returning to Seoul, nearly everyone succumbed to terrible colds, flus, and stomach aches. Seungcheol understood the normalcy of sickness. His job as leader required him to care for those sick members without complaint. A day or two resting in the dorm seemed like the perfect way to heal quickly.

Pledis had other plans. 

Pledis vehemently refused to give anyone a break. The managers chastised them for getting sick in the first place, and the managers expected them in the practice room at six a.m. sharp. When Seungcheol had received this news, voluntary manslaughter seemed very likely to appear on his record in court after murdering the staff. Jeonghan’s squeeze to his shoulder, reminded him witnesses scattered all over the building. Therefore, the rest of the group had to suffer through their sickness. 

Seungcheol tried his best.

Seungcheol—one of the few, had not caught any of the members’ virus. He carried the responsibility like a boulder on his back and bundled the others up to their noses, as they walked to the company building. 

By noon, several tissues of snot filled the practice room. The sick members laid in different corners of the room, pressed against the cool wall. Wonwoo had collapsed in the middle of the floor curled up in a ball, as he spent the majority of the morning escorted to the bathroom to throw up. 

The sight made voluntary manslaughter quickly transform to first-degree murder on his record. 

When their break finally arrived, Seungcheol rushed to the convenience store around the corner and stock-piled on medicine. He laid out the multi-colored pills for them to take. The medicine disappeared within minutes. 

Seungcheol’s heart panged in sadness, wanting everyone to feel better. 

Practice finally came to a close late at night and Seungcheol sprang to the convenience store again. He rushed down the aisles, throwing as much medicine as he could into his tiny green shopping basket. 

“Slow down, Seungcheol,” Jeonghan called out behind him, rubbing his tired eyes. Jeonghan like Seungcheol had luck on his side. The virus spreading around had not caught him either. Perpetual sleepiness, however— 

“Everyone is sick,” Seungcheol stated, “I’m not slowing down.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Wonwoo is throwing up.”

“He stopped throwing up this morning,” Jeonghan informed. “You don’t have to worry so much.”

“Chan has a fever,” Seungcheol redirected. 

“Chan is sleeping it off after taking his medicine and Jisoo is watching over him.” Jeonghan exhaled softly. “I know you are worried and I am too, but you need to chill out, you are starting to scare me.” Jeonghan reached out and stopped Seungcheol from buying six bottles of cough syrup. He placed his hands warmly on Seungcheol’s hands, lowering them to his sides.

Jeonghan gazed at Seungcheol carefully, examining his tired expression. His big brown doe eyes had become tiny slits in the harsh fluorescent light of the convenience store. Swept under his eyes appeared black marks that looked like smudged eyeliner but really only prominent bags. Jeonghan wished he had the strength to carry Seungcheol over his shoulder, manhandle him onto a bed, and wipe the tiredness from his body. That desire wavered as Seungcheol snatched his hands away. 

“I don’t think you care at all,” Seungcheol stated firmly. He turned the aisle again and his eyes caught the attention of an old woman by the register. She sipped her tea from a cute totoro thermos as she leaned against the counter. She bowed her head, completely engrossed in flipping through a magazine. Anyone could have reached behind the register, stolen some cash, and she wouldn’t have noticed. And wow, he really needed to stop thinking about committing a crime.

His attention redirected when he found the electrolyte solution. 

“Seungcheol,” Jeonghan chastised again, following him with more determination. Seungcheol could feel Jeonghan’s glare seared to the back of his head.

“Yeah?” Seungcheol’s voice rose. He knew he sounded deranged, and he wanted the words to stop, but they dribbled out of his mouth like poisonous wine. “I’ve been the one chasing after all of them today making sure everyone is fine. I bought everyone chicken soup and medicine during lunch. What did you do?” 

An assortment of flavors and colors in front of him caused a small migraine to throb at the temple of his head.

“What did I do?” Jeonghan hissed. He looked over his shoulder toward the old woman. The old woman quickly snapped her neck back to her magazine. Jeonghan sighed again. His arms sprang out and quickly, he dropped a lychee, mango, and strawberry flavor in Seungcheol’s basket, knowing Wonwoo, Chan, and Seokmin enjoyed those flavors the most. “I made sure Minghao didn’t cough up a lung and made sure Seungkwan didn’t straining his voice because we both know how that kid gets when he’s trying to reach a note.” 

Seungcheol unintentionally rolled his eyes. Fuck. He wanted to blame his rude behavior on his lack of sleep and his own twisted stomach, but Seungcheol knew clearly neither of those reasons would excuse his terrible behavior. 

But god, even though Jeonghan knew Seungcheol’s actions and words held no real weight they stung like salty sea waves slapping him across the face and knocking his feet from under him. Jeonghan just needed to get back up. He sucked in a breath, swearing he tasted saltiness in the air. “You need to stop acting like you are taking care of everyone on your own.” 

Jeonghan scoffed. He reached inside the shopping basket and traded a chicken soup brand for another. “I am trying to help.”

Seungcheol traded the chicken soups again. He dropped it in the basket with a thunk. “Well, it will help if you go get the ginger root so I can make some tea. How about that?”

Jeonghan stared him down and Seungcheol watched Jeonghan’s own eye bags dominate his face as Jeonghan narrowed his eyes. 

Jeonghan grew tired of fighting against the ocean. “Oh my god, you are so  _ fucking _ stubborn.” Jeonghan retreated to the shore.

Seungcheol took a long moment to examine Jeonghan. Jeonghan had cut his hair recently, allowing Seungcheol to see the tense line in his shoulders. 

“Fuck,” Seungcheol muttered under his breath. He carded his hand through his hair before he moped to the register. 

He hoisted his shopping basket on the counter and the woman reached inside without looking away from her magazine to scan the items. Seungcheol tilted his head back, letting the scanner’s beeping noise calm his racing heart like a metronome.  

He let his head suddenly drop to his chest; his eyes drew to the old woman’s wrinkled age-spotted hands. A silver ring with a red gemstone hugged her pointer finger. Seungcheol found it out of place with her drab, gray attire. 

Seungcheol jumped in place as Jeonghan dropped something on the counter. When he saw, the ginger root wrapped in the plastic bag, he sighed and sent Jeonghan a minute side glare. 

“I’m not being stubborn,” Seungcheol found himself saying. 

“Of course you are,” Jeonghan said, an airy tone in his voice. Jeonghan reached around him and grabbed a packet of gum. Jeonghan wanted to get the bad taste out of his mouth. He handed the small packet to the old woman with a forced smile. Jeonghan continued, “I think you get off on taking on this weird martyrdom of responsibility. You aren’t the only who can help. You know Soonyoung isn’t sick, he’s completely willing to help but you won’t even ask him. He’s a leader too, in case you forgot.” 

“That will be forty-two thousand won,” The old woman interrupted. 

Seungcheol ignored her and twisted his hip to face Jeonghan. His face hardened as he said, “I’m not going to ask him.”

“And why not?”

“Because I don’t want him to.”

“I don’t want him to,” Jeonghan repeated mockingly. 

Seungcheol hated that tone. “You know what? I’ve had it.”

_ “What?” _

“You are always undermining my authority. When I tell the group to head to bed, there you are dragging half of them to watch tv. When I tell the group they can’t eat this you convince them to bring it to you and all of you start to chow it down and when I ask you about it, you just sit there doing nothing, acting all innocent. It feels like we are constantly fighting over a group of eleven kids, and for what? For you to give me shit that we need to share responsibility when you don’t even take it seriously when I do ask.”

Jeonghan’s hands tightened on the counter. He felt his cheek twitching in annoyance and he didn’t want Seungcheol to see it. He remained upright, only to stop himself from lashing out again or worse—crying. “Are you done?” Jeonghan asked.

“Yeah,” Seungcheol adjusted his jacket, pulling it harshly at the ends.

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“That will be forty-two thousand won,” The old woman said again, annoyance in her voice.

Seungcheol reached inside his pocket for his wallet but Jeonghan beat him to it. He dropped the bills on the counter, “I’ll pay. It’s the least I can do since I don’t help around. Thank you.” He took the black plastic bag and walked toward the exit.

“Jeonghan,” Seungcheol said, immediately regretting his words. 

Jeonghan forced a smile again and said too sweetly, “Let’s get the kids their medicine.” 

 

>>>

 

A grating beeping noise overhead caused a low, long groan to seep out of Seungcheol’s mouth. He tangled further into his sheets, face pressing uncomfortably against his pillow. His ears picked up shuffling on the top bunk. He twisted his neck uncomfortably and saw Jeonghan climbing down the bed and heading toward the bathroom. 

Seungcheol layed in bed for a minute, last night’s hectic activity still taking a toll on his body. Seungcheol did not see improvement in his members until three in the morning. Their colds had subsided to runny noses and shallow coughing, much better than the perpetual fever most of them suffered from. Wonwoo on the other, while no longer hacked into the nearest trash can or toilet, still had a lingering pain in his stomach.

Seungcheol kicked off the covers, hoping Wonwoo felt better. He meandered to the bathroom, avoiding the closest one to their room. He could hear the shower running. Normally, the members to save time and move the bathroom situation efficiently, they would pair off. Seungcheol didn’t care who he shared his shower time with, although, he did have a soft spot for Jeonghan.

Sometimes, he let his eyes linger as the water splashed against Jeonghan’s broad shoulders or how water droplets clung to Jeonghan’s prominent collarbones and trickled down his chest and stomach to—

Seungcheol sucked in a breath. It was old news, that Seungcheol found Jeonghan attractive. However, thinking of Jeonghan in such away after things remained tense between them seemed crude. Seungcheol drowned those thoughts under his own cold shower. 

He wished to stay under the spray longer, but he knew one of the members would knock on the door and tell him to hurry up. He shut off the water and quickly changed into some fresh clothes. 

Upon arriving in the living room, ready to go, he found Jeonghan standing eerily in the middle of the room. 

He broke their silence by asking, “What’s wrong?”

Jeonghan met his eyes a bit startled. The worried look across Seungcheol’s face made Jeonghan momentarily forget his anger, so he answered in hopes his strong leader could fix it. “It’s quiet.”

Seungcheol froze. For some reason the lack of sound grated his ears more painfully than Jeonghan’s alarm clock. 

Before Seungcheol could say a word, they suddenly heard a very visceral loud cry breaking the silence. 

The wail caught them off guard. It reverberated against the walls, high-in pitch. Jeonghan and Seungcheol looked at each other in shock.

“Is that...Is that a baby crying?” Seungcheol questioned, already rushing to the sound of the noise. The sound originated from the biggest room in their dorm. Seungcheol swung the door open. Without the barrier, the cry sounded harsher. He rushed to the noise, finding himself standing over Chan’s bed.

Underneath the soft green covers, a small mass lied in the center of the bed. The covers shifted and stretched. Something clearly was moving it. 

Jeonghan stood beside him and Seungcheol slowly reached for the bed sheets. Carefully, he pulled them up.

“What the fuck!” Seungcheol shouted.

He stared down at the crying baby, tossing and turning. Red stained it’s fat cheeks and it’s small mouth kept releasing the most terrible wail Seungcheol had heard. The baby couldn’t have been more than a year old. 

Jeonghan hesitantly leaned down and picked up the baby. He cradled the baby to his chest as he asked, “Why is there a baby here?” 

Seungcheol desperately wanted an answer to that question too. However, the universe had more surprises in store for him. Seungcheol slowly spun around as he heard people getting out of bed. Seungcheol’s knees shook at the sight and Jeonghan had to sit down.

On the other five beds, five different children of various age got out of bed. 

“Hyung?” The child on Soonyoung’s bed spoke. “Why is Channie crying?” 

Seungcheol’s voice lodged in the center of his throat.

“Hyung?” The child asked again when Seungcheol’s mouth hung open. 

Seungcheol desperately looked to Jeonghan, but Jeonghan had already descended to another plane. He sat there gripping the child, eyes completely dazed. Seungcheol bit his lip and asked softly, “Umm...who are you?” 

The kid smiled brightly and Seungcheol already feared the answer as he saw that familiar eye scrunching smile. “Soonyoung!” The child shrieked excitedly. 

“Fuck!” Seungcheol cried out in response.

“Ooohhh, Cheol-hyung said a bad word!” Came the voice from Wonwoo’s bed.

“This can’t be happening,” Jeonghan finally said. “I must be dreaming.”

“We cannot be having the same dream,” Seungcheol shrieked, heart beating rapidly. 

He needed to get out. He dashed to the room next door. Seungcheol nearly fell at the doorway as he saw two tiny children jumping on Seungkwan’s bed, giggling loudly. 

Seungcheol screamed, the sound echoing in the dorm as he sprinted back to his room. He saw a kid climbing down Mingyu’s bed and another small kid sleeping in Jihoon’s bed. 

Seungcheol took deep breaths. Okay, he could do this. He took long strides to Jihoon’s bed and scooped the small child in his arms. 

“Everyone meet in the living room, now!” Seungcheol shouted, his voice carrying across the dorm in it’s usual boom. 

He nearly had a heart attack as he heard the pitter patter of small children’s feet. He came to the living room and sat on the couch, Jihoon, he believed, sleeping in his arms.

Seungcheol locked eyes with Jeonghan, both their eyes screaming for help. Jeonghan though sat beside him, baby still in his arms. The baby had stopped crying at least and instead slept soundly. Silver lining...

When Seungcheol looked to the children, Seungcheol could not deny these were his members. There were too many similarities. He could see Seungkwan’s high chubby cheekbones, Jun’s very distinctive nose, and Hansol’s puffy hair. 

“Okay,” Seungcheol spoke, voice shaky. “We are going to go around and introduce ourselves. Does everyone understand?”

Nine kids nodded and all sat down cross legged on the ground. 

“I’m Joshua!” Jisoo said proudly.

Jeonghan thinned his lips and then asked, “Joshua? How old are you?”

Seungcheol whined behind his mouth as he saw the familiar twinkle behind his friend’s eyes. Joshua then began to babble, “I was born on December 30th, 1995 so I am one, two, three, four, five.”

“Five?” Seungcheol asked looking at the others. He tried to do the math to figure out their ages. 

“Yup. I’m a big boy!” Joshua declared. 

Jeonghan laughed in disbelief. “Okay wow,” He looked at Wonwoo sitting beside Jisoo, who then proceeded to introduce himself.

Seungcheol’s mind ran a mile a minute as the kids continued. No, no no, this couldn’t be happening. Seungkwan and Hansol, only two years old, struggled to pronounce their names a bit but Seungcheol understood clearly who they were.

There was an awkward pause when Seokmin finished saying his name. Seungcheol thinned his lips and cautiously looked down at the four year old in his arms. “And I'm gonna assume this is Jihoon,” Seungcheol said, eye twitching. 

“And Chan,” Jeonghan stated, slowly patting the baby’s back. 

“Okay,” Seungcheol placed Jihoon on the couch. He rubbed his hands through his air, pacing around the living room. He sucked in a harsh breath and then kneeled down. “Okay kids, we are gonna watch some tv while I make breakfast.”

The children all cheered and scrambled on the couch. Seokmin kneed Jihoon in the gut, causing him to whine and finally wake up.

Seungcheol escaped to the kitchen with Jeonghan trailing behind. Over his shoulder he could hear the familiar sound of children cartoons playing in the background. This wasn’t happening.  _ Fuck _ . He went to the fridge and leaned his head on the cool metal. When he finally turned around, he saw Jeonghan’s terrified eyes, a small pout on his lips, and Chan still sleeping in his arms.

“Okay this is either some elaborate prank or…” Seungcheol tried to rationalize the situation.

“Or what, Seungcheol.” Jeonghan hissed, “Everyone is a freaking kid.”

“I know that! I don’t—I don’t know what to do.” This was definitely out of his realm, nothing at Pledis could have prepared him for this. 

Jeonghan took deep breaths. “I don’t either.”

“Is this like a medical condition? Do we call the ambulance?”

Jeonghan gave him a deadpanned look. “Oh cause that will be a fun call. Yes 119, what’s your emergency? Oh, we just woke up and it seems all our members got de-aged. They’ll think we are prank calling them.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know. You’re the leader.”

“Yes, but I don’t know how to take care of children!”

“Well last night you were all so ready to take all responsibility for these kids.”

“I meant figuratively! Not actual children! You are carrying Chan in your arms! He’s one year old!”

_ “Hyung?” _

Jeonghan and Seungcheol sucked in a startled breath, both fighting the urge to jump five feet in the air. Slowly they looked down from where Jisoo was tugging on Seungcheol’s pant leg. Jisoo had dark brown hair and his eyes seemed more round than he did as an adult, almost like a kitten.

“Yes,” Seungcheol managed to croak out.

“I want apple for breakfast.”

“Apple?” Seungcheol asked slowly, still trying to absorb the situation.

The kid nodded rapidly. “Yes.” And then as afterthought, as a kid still learning manners said, “Please.”

“Okay, we will get your apple, just go sit down in the living room.”

Jisoo smiled brightly and then dashed to the living room. They heard a series of giggles straight after and slowly Jeonghan and Seungcheol locked eyes again. 

“Okay, let’s think this through,” Jeonghan tried to reason.

Seungcheol nodded and pulled out his cellphone. “Let’s call the company.”

“And say what?” Jeonghan became panicked.

“That we are all sick and can’t come in.”

“Cause that worked last time.”

“I’ll sell it that we can’t get out of bed.”

Jeonghan took a deep breath. “Okay, that’s actually good. I guess, I’ll make breakfast?”

Seungcheol reached out. “Okay, here give me Chan.” 

Jeonghan handed the child. Seungcheol maneuvered the one year old so Chan’s chin was tucked under Seungcheol’s shoulder. Seungcheol took a big gulp. Okay, when he and Jeonghan joked that Chan was the baby, he had never meant literally. This was too weird. 

He walked by the living room trying to ignore the kids sitting in the living room, staring at the tv like zombies. He took long strides to his room and shut the door. He sat on his bed taking very deep breaths. Finally, he dialed one of their managers.

“Hello?” The manager answered from the other line upon the first ring.

“Hi,” Seungcheol started awkwardly. “Umm...”

“Seungcheol?”

“Yeah...um we can’t come in today.”

“Why not?”

“Everyone is sick.”

“I’m sure you guys are fine, just come into the company.”

“No like everyone is throwing up and has a fever.”

“Everyone?”

“Everyone.”

“Even you?”

“No ah, I’m taking care of every—” Seungcheol jumped off the bed as the baby in his arms coughed out and then threw up over his shoulder and down his back. The baby made a loud whining sound, but it wasn’t the crying from the morning.

“What was that?” The manager asked.

“Chan just threw up on me,” Seungcheol answered. 

“Ewww, so everyone is like that?”

“Yeah except me and Jeonghan. We were thinking since we aren’t from the same unit it will be kind of hard to practice together so we thought we could stay and take care of the others.”

He heard a long sigh from the other line. “Fine, two days of break.”

Seungcheol wanted to cry at the sudden relief. “Thank you.”

“Whatever, hope everyone feels better.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“And Seungcheol?”

“Yes?”

“I’m counting on you to make sure everyone feels better by that time. Is that clear?” The manager spoke firmly. 

Seungcheol suddenly felt suffocated but he nodded. He then remembered the manager couldn’t see him, so he responded, “Yes. That’s clear.”

“Good. See you in two days.”

The manager hung up the phone and Seungcheol let out a shaky breath. He sat on the bed for a few minutes, letting his nerves settle before exiting his room. 

As soon as he entered the living room, Seungcheol froze. He saw Junhui throwing cereal at Minghao and Mingyu, Jisoo crying because Soonyoung stole his apples, Seungkwan chasing Hansol around the living room with his chopsticks, and worst of all he saw Jihoon smashing food in Seokmin’s face. Wonwoo was the only child to sit calmly away from the kids and eat his toast while watching tv.

Seungcheol looked for Jeonghan was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a panicked look in his eyes.

“I don’t know what happened,” Jeonghan stammered quickly. 

Seungcheol stared at the children in a panic as well. The noise level was getting louder by the second, making Seungcheol fear that a neighbor would come to check out the commotion. He was about to handle the situation by screaming at the kids, but then he stopped dead center in the living room. His face cringed and he had the sudden urge to drop the baby.

“What?” Jeonghan asked, coming up to him.

Seungcheol scrunched his face in distaste, “Chan peed...and I think pooped.” 

“Oh.”

The two of them stood quietly, eyes out of focus in the center of the living room while ten kids ran amuck around them. 

After a long moment, Seungcheol handed Chan to Jeonghan.

“Eww no.”

_ “Jeonghan.” _

Jeonghan took Chan reluctantly. 

“I need to go get diapers,” Seungcheol stated, trying to tackle one situation at a time. 

“My tummy hurts!” Wonwoo whined after finishing his toast.

Both of them ignored him as Jeonghan snapped,  _ “Don’t you dare leave me alone with eleven kids.” _

“Well, what are we going to do? We can’t have him sit in his own shit!”

They heard ten kids gasp and then Soonyoung started the chant of, “Seungcheol said a bad word!” The other kids began to say it as well, jumping up and down the living room. Seungcheol’s eye twitched, “Or what do you suggest, we wrap him in newspaper? He’ll get an infection.”

Jeonghan breathed out of his mouth, “Okay, just be quick, please.” 

Seungcheol pressed both hands against Jeonghan’s shoulders in what he he hoped was a comforting way, “I promise I will be back in five minutes. It’s just around the corner.”  

Seungcheol dashed out of the dorm without another word. Secretly, he wanted to leave Jeonghan with those kids and never show his face again because really, this could not be real. Seungcheol had never heard of this occurring anywhere and he didn’t even know something like this was possible. 

He inhaled the fresh breath of air as soon as he stepped outside. He wanted to sit on the curb and cry but this wasn’t the time. He mustered the courage and headed toward the convenience store. He saw the same old woman from last night at the register, still flipping through a magazine.

Seungcheol zoomed past her and toward the baby aisle. He cursed loudly when he realized he had forgotten to grab a basket, but there wasn’t any time. So he grabbed a bunch of diapers without reading the age and carried the small boxes in his arms. As he was about to turn the aisle, he saw at the corner of his eye a bunch of baby food. He recalled that they didn’t have any food in the fridge. All of it had been used for breakfast. He cursed again.

He ran toward the register, dropped the boxes on the counter with a dull thunk, and ran back. He grabbed several random flavors of baby food and snacks and went back to the old woman.

The old woman didn’t even question why he was purchasing this and only scanned his items. Seungcheol paid with his card, cringing at the price of the diapers. He thanked the old lady as she bagged his items. He wanted to dash back to the apartment, but he remembered they didn’t have much food and the food he bought would really be only good enough for Chan.

So Seungcheol took a deep breath and jogged down the street. Luckily, there weren’t that many people this early in the morning so he only ran into elderly people on their morning walk. He couldn’t imagine what fans would say as he ran down the street like a lunatic.

He arrived at a very small grocery store. Seungcheol remembered this time to grab a cart and he launched himself down each aisle picking out random things he would need. By the time he reached the last aisle and started rolling the cart to the cashier, food filled his entire cart to the brim. He hoped he would be able to carry all of this back.

He placed his items on the conveyer belt and wanted to curse at the cashier person. It was another old lady moving at a very leisurely pace. Seungcheol almost forgot his manners and fought the urge to tell her to hurry up.

But finally after a gruesome ten minutes, she scanned his last item and Seungcheol thrusted his card in her hands before she could even give him the price.

She swiped his card and Seungcheol snatched it out of her hand. Quickly, he bagged his own items and ran out of the store.

Despite the cold weather, Seungcheol couldn’t stop sweating with the amount of bags hanging from both his arms. When he saw the dorm building up ahead, he wanted to collapse on the ground in sheer relief.

He made it into the dorm, already expecting the worse. “I’m sorry! I know I said five minutes!” Seungcheol pleaded loudly. “But we needed food and there was this slow old lady—” Seungcheol paused mid-sentence as silence slapped him in the face.

Jeonghan appeared in his line of sight with a soft smile on his face, “Oh, you’re back. That took a while.”

“Yeah, I went to go buy food.” Seungcheol looked around the living room, searching for the children. “Where are they? Did you murder them?”

Jeonghan laughed loudly. “No, they are in the big room.”

“Did you lock them in there?”

Jeonghan laughed again, “No they are all listening to Joshua read.” Jeonghan made him drop the grocery bags on the ground and follow him down the hallway. Seungcheol grabbed the diapers and trailed terrifyingly behind Jeonghan.

When he entered the room, he stopped in shock. Jisoo had a book in his lap. His tiny fingers traced under the words as his mouth formed the perfect syllables. Chan sat next to him stark naked, clapping his hands.

“Apparently Joshua was able to read at five,” Jeonghan whispered. “He saw how I was freaking out and then left and when I noticed he was missing I had a small panic attack. He came back to the living room with a children’s book that one of the fans bought Chan as a joke. He’s been reading it to them for the past ten minutes.”

“And they just stayed quiet?” Seungcheol asked, marveled at the sight.

“C’mon Cheol, didn’t you think the kid in kindergarten who could read was the coolest kid ever?”

True, Seungcheol had vague memories of admiring the child who could already read at a young age. He recalled a small child and every other student pointing to unfamiliar words and asking the kid to read it. 

“I’m gonna change Chan,” Jeonghan said, taking the diapers. “Go make lunch.”

Seungcheol checked the time, not realizing he had been gone that long. Freaking old ladies. 

After a gruesome hour of cooking, Seungcheol finally had the meal set out for them. He noticed Chan freshly dressed in new clothes. He looked at Jeonghan in confusion.

“Yeah…” Jeonghan said, sitting beside him. “All their clothes shrinked.”

“What?”

“Yup.”

Seungcheol stared at his food in confusion. De-aging the members was one thing but their clothes too...that seemed out of place. 

The kids ate with much gusto. Several of them still did not have the dexterity in their fingers to use the chopsticks so they used their hands. Consequently, a mess was made. Seungcheol wanted to get angry, but he recalled they were just kids. He would clean it up himself later. 

Jeonghan volunteered though to clean everything so Seungcheol was on kid duty.

“Poop!” Seungkwan announced loudly. 

Seungcheol smiled awkwardly, “Then go poop.”

Seungkwan stared at him expectantly. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Seungkwan was asking. “Oh my fu—” He led the kid to the bathroom. Seungkwan successfully pooped in the toilet but he needed Seungcheol’s help. Seungcheol really did not expect to spend quality time with Seungkwan by wiping his ass. 

He threw the dirty toilet paper down the toilet and helped Seungkwan pull up his pants and wash his hands in the sink. 

When he returned to the living room, the kids were watching some cartoon and all jumping around. Seungkwan joined them quickly. Seungcheol sat on the couch beside Chan, who clapped his hands at the sight. 

Carefully, he watched them. He noticed with amusement that for once Jihoon was the same height as Mingyu. Thankfully, the kids entertained themselves that by the time it was nighttime, Seungcheol tasked Soonyoung and Jihoon with a very important job. 

He asked them to bring all the blankets in the dorm to the living room. Junhui and Jisoo whined that they wanted to help too so Seungcheol asked them to bring the pillows.

Seungcheol didn’t trust having the kids sleep in different rooms all by themselves. He wanted to keep a close eye on them in case anything happened. So he made the living room into a giant sleeping area. 

Surprisingly, it didn’t take that long to put the kids to sleep. They all curled into each other, soft snores leaving their mouths within minutes.

Jeonghan and Seungcheol stood in the corner of the living room, a sleeping Chan in their arms. 

“Are you still freaked out?” Seungcheol asked Jeonghan.

“Completely. I’m pretending this doesn’t exist and I’m just having a very long dream.”

Seungcheol agreed, and managed to make himself a makeshift bed, falling asleep shortly after.

Seungcheol woke up to the sound of arguing. He scrunched his eyes and slowly rose from the floor.

His eyes widened comically at the sight of tiny children in the dorm, until he remembered what had transpired last night.

“Give it back!” Minghao shouted at Mingyu.

Mingyu held the remote overhead. “No! My turn!”

“Give it back!” Minghao shouted again, voice much louder.

“No!”

Seungcheol saw it in slow motion. Minghao’s face scrunched in complete rage before pulling his fist back and hitting Mingyu straight in the nose.

Seungcheol screamed, throwing off the blankets and dashing to them. He picked up Minghao who immediately began kicking and throwing a tantrum. Mingyu, kicked at Seungcheol’s feet, not knowing where to redirect his anger. 

“Hey!” Seungcheol rose his voice. “Stop it both of you.”

His reprimands were drowned out as other kids began to slowly wake up and cry with the commotion. 

Seungcheol cursed in his head, now knowing cursing in front of them was never a good idea. Finally he held, Minghao at arm’s length and glared at the kid. The kid glared right back as if he wanted to murder him.

Sheesh, what the hell Minghao?

“Timeout!” Seungcheol said sternly.

“No!” Minghao shouted.

“Timeout!” Seungcheol repeated himself. He looked down at Mingyu, “You too.”

“He started it!” Mingyu yelled.

“I don’t care. Both of you timeout. Five minutes.” He walked to the corner of the room and dropped Minghao to his feet. “Five minutes.” Seungcheol said firmly, leaving no room for argument.

Minghao scrunched his nose and spun on his heel facing the wall. Seungcheol walked toward Mingyu and placed him at the opposite corner.

Seungcheol sighed once the peace resumed and Jeonghan finally woke up. He blearily looked around the room and saw Minghao and Mingyu now crying silently in the corner.

Seungcheol sighed, “Timeout,” Almost as if it was a daily occurrence. 

Jeonghan collapsed on the bed and then whined as Chan kicked him in the side. “Chan,” Jeonghan mumbled, looking down at the kid.

Jeonghan suddenly rusted in place. He could have sworn Chan had fit perfectly nestled under his arm last night, now his legs seemed entirely too long for his body as he tried to mold himself into Jeonghan’s side.

“What happened?” Seungcheol questioned.

Jeonghan couldn’t find the words first. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it. But slowly, he sat up and looked around the room for his target. He found Jisoo slowly getting up and rubbing his tired eyes.

“Shua,” Jeonghan asked. “How old are you?”

Jisoo stared him down before replying, “Six.” Jisoo kicked off the covers in an obvious mood and left the living room toward the bathroom.

Seungcheol dropped to his knees by Jeonghan. “Did he just say six?” 

“Uh huh.”

“But he was five yesterday.”

Seungcheol looked cautiously around the room. The others looked relatively the same until he saw Hansol and Seungkwan appear out of the covers. They looked a lot bigger than they had last night. 

“I want pancakes!” Seungkwan shouted when he saw Jeonghan. Oh god, that was a lot different than Seungkwan’s one word sentences just last night.

Jeonghan ignored the now three-year old to stare at Seungcheol, “Do you think they will just grow back to their age.”

“It seems so.” 

Seungcheol went to the kitchen and while he was pulling all the ingredients, he got a smiley Jisoo and Jun within his space.

“Can we help?” Jisoo asked.

Seungcheol was hesitant. He didn’t know much about kids but he knew the messes they would make, but seeing both their pleading looks, Seungcheol had them mix the batter. 

 

>>>

 

Waking up to Soonyoung bouncing on top of Jeonghan and Seungcheol might have been endearing if it weren’t the middle of the night.

Seungcheol blearily opened his eyes and saw Soonyoung’s mad look.

“What?” Seungcheol mumbled. He checked first if there was an emergency. He saw everyone asleep except for Jihoon, who was on his phone with his headphones in. Seungcheol sighed, thinking that he had hid the phone before they went to bed.

Soonyoung jumped on his chest again.

“What?” Seungcheol asked again.

“Do you wanna see me dancing?!” 

“What? Soonyoung it’s—”

“4:03,” Jihoon answered for him.

“But I was practicing all last night and I didn’t get to show you because you were giving Hansol and Chan a bath,” Soonyoung whined.

Seungcheol sighed and smiled. “Okay, let’s see your dancing.”

Soonyoung did a strange series of movements and then repeatedly bounced his left leg on the floor. Seungcheol clapped when it was over. Soonyoung’s eyes twinkled and he jumped on Seungcheol, “Did you really like it?”

“I loved it.”

That seemed to appease him and he walked toward Jihoon. “Jihoonnie, sleep.” Soonyoung took the phone away and wrapped himself around the child.

Seungcheol smiled at both of them and reached for his phone. He groaned internally as he saw a message already from his manager.

_ Are you coming in today? _

Seungcheol typed out a quickly reply.  _ No they are still sick. _

_ Do they need to go to the doctors? _

_ No everything’s fine. _

Seungcheol received a call immediately after that. Seungcheol made sure to walk into one of the empty rooms and shut the door, “If you are using this as a mini vacation,” His manager threatened.

“We aren’t. They are still sick.”

“Then they should go to the doctors.”

Seungcheol didn’t know how to counter that and he gasped as suddenly Jeonghan took the phone, “Seungcheol is taking very good care of everyone, I think going to the doctor’s would be a waste of resources and time. Everyone just needs some sleep.”

“I still want some of you in today.”

“Okay, we can do that,” Seungcheol interrupted. 

Jeonghan’s mouth fell open in surprise as Seungcheol took back the phone. 

“I can get Jihoon and Soonyoung to come in,” Seungcheol continued. 

“Good.”

“I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Seungcheol hung up the phone and immediately, Jeonghan reprimanded him. “What are you doing? They can’t go into the company looking like that.”

“We will hide in Jihoon’s studio.”

“And you are gonna leave me alone with the kids?”

“The kids can help you.”

“They’re kids what help can they give?”

“Jisoo, Jun, and Mingyu helped me cook all of yesterday and Seokmin did a good job of picking up after Chan. And Wonwoo keeps the younger ones from getting too rowdy. What?” Seungcheol questioned at the end when he saw Jeonghan’s face soften in confusion.

“Nothing just…Nevermind. How are you sneaking them in though?”

Seungcheol had a plan...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So every two chapters is going to be an arc, which means I am going to take au instances and shove them into a nonau setting. Right now these two chapters are going to be about Seventeen as kids. I will do a genderbending one in future chapters, you just have to wait. In other words, I will be doing a ton of au tropes that the seventeen members have to suffer through. Hope that makes sense. There will be thirteen tropes in total, so that gives me 26 chapters in all (hopefully).
> 
> Tell me what you think so far!!!


	2. Honey, why are the kids now kids? pt.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPLOAD! I WAS REALLY BUSY!

“Okay we are playing spies remember? The point of the game is to not get caught,”Seungcheol told Jihoon and Soonyoung outside the company building. He tilted his head down at the two children, who appeared like two giant black balls. The weather that morning had not been kind and even with their thick coats, Seungcheol still felt the chilly wind bite his skin. Although, the weather had worked in their favor as very few people chose to walk in the streets in the cold. It allowed Seungcheol to practically roll two overly bundled children to the company in the first place. Caution was still required though, which made Seungcheol guide them to the back entrance, away from any watchful eyes.

“Are there going to be lasers?” Soonyoung questioned.

“Lots! And lots of enemies! So you have to keep to the shadows and follow me closely.” Seungcheol’s eyes went to Jihoon. The child’s expression was hard to read due to the scarf covering half his face. “You remember the map I drew out for you, right? We have to go to the studio. Do you remember where that is?”

“Duh, I work there every day,” Jihoon commented dryly.

Seungcheol stared at him with confusion, and suddenly blurted. “Wait, you remember?” He noticed a few hours into the whole predicament, no one remembered much of anything. All they knew was their names, friends, and a basic understanding of their careers, but their underdeveloped brains couldn't grasp the details, so Jihoon surprised Seungcheol by recalling where he worked.

In a second, something flashed in Jihoon’s eyes and he returned to that creepy emotionless child. “Let’s go,” He urged to Seungcheol, already pulling at his sleeve. “Jeonghan said he was going to give me orange juice if I came with you.”

Seungcheol blinked rapidly, then spoke slowly, “Right.”

He pushed open the door, making sure the hallway was clear. Using the buddy system, the two children walked in behind him holding hands. He knew the hallway wouldn’t be empty for long. So he jogged down the hallway, the two children running to keep up with Seungcheol’s long strides, which made them look like two bouncing balls.  

Within a minute, they made it to the elevator and then safely into Jihoon’s studio without trouble. Seungcheol closed the door and collapsed against it in relief. Soonyoung gasped at the sight of all the tech and rushed to it. Jihoon did as well and began to fiddle with some buttons.

The computer made a strange whirring noise. Seungcheol jumped off the door and pulled both kids away, “Okay, no touching. Sit on the couch.”

“Do you know how to make music?” Jihoon questioned, sitting politely on the couch.

“Um...of course I do!” Seungcheol announced, not sure why he found the need to impress the two kids. He turned on the computer and tried to mess around with the beats Jihoon had laid out. After spending an hour fiddling with Jihoon’s equipment, he couldn’t successfully place the beats and melodies of the song well in the song. It sounded disjointed and most of all terrible. He thunked his head on the desk. God, they had their debut in a few weeks and the title song still wasn’t finished. 

Seungcheol was ready to keel over and have an aneurysm or something. It had not helped when a few days ago Jihoon announced he was slightly behind on his work, and it certainly did not help that Jihoon was now utterly useless to keep going with the track. 

He swiveled in the chair and saw Soonyoung quietly napping on the couch while Jihoon played a game on his phone. When the six-year-old noticed he was being watched, he turned off his phone.

“Are you done now? Can I go get my juice?”

Seungcheol thinned his lips in a tight smile. “It’s not lunchtime yet, so no. And I’m not done here. I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

Jihoon slid off the couch and stood on the tips of his shoes to glance at the computer screen. Seungcheol took sympathy on him and placed him on his lap. Wow, he hadn’t had Jihoon in his lap since pre debut days.

“Oh my god, don’t touch that,” Seungcheol took Jihoon’s small wrist, terrified the kid would break the expensive equipment.

Jihoon narrowed his eyes and yanked his hand back. “It sounds better like this,” Jihoon said. He pressed something on the keyboard and Seungcheol watched him stretch to reach the mouse. Seungcheol watched the kid as he worked silently for five minutes.

“Done,” Jihoon said, craning his neck to look at him expectantly.

Seungcheol hit the play button. The first few seconds of the song were still there before the kids got de-aged but what small section Jihoon had added was a seamless shift from heavy drum beats to soft melodic ones. The song sounded whimsical and almost perfect. The song stopped at a thirteen-second mark. It was all the music they had so far.

“That’s-that’s brilliant Jihoon.”

Jihoon’s cheeks scrunched from the praise. 

He really had not expected this tiny child to offer insight into the album, but he should have known better because even though Jihoon was six, it was still musically-inclined Jihoon. 

Both of them jumped as they suddenly heard a knock from the doorway. Seungcheol looked at Jihoon warily. He dropped the kid to the ground and mimed the universal shushing noise. Jihoon understood and tiptoed back to the couch. 

Seungcheol meanwhile carefully exited the studio, opening the door only enough to let him through. 

“So?” His manager asked as a greeting. 

“Yes?”

“You came.”

“Yup.”

“Where’s Jihoon and Soonyoung?” She questioned impatiently. 

“In the studio—ah, you know how Jihoon gets when he’s in the zone. I promise work is actually getting done,  _ surprisingly _ .”

The manager narrowed her eyes but huffed and said regardless, “Fine. Tell the others. I hope they feel better.” 

“Will do.”

He waited until he could no longer hear her heels down the hallway before re-entering the room. 

 

>>>

 

Seungcheol returned to the dorm with Soonyoung and Jihoon only to see Wonwoo in the living room with Seungkwan rubbing his tummy like some domestic cat. Soonyoung and Jihoon ran to the kitchen, most likely to get Jihoon’s juice. 

“Wonwoo?” Seungcheol asked, immediately worried. 

Wonwoo looked up at him, “My tummy still hurts.”

“Did you take the medicine?” Seungcheol asked. He sat down next to him and started rubbing the child’s stomach. Wonwoo slowly began to doze off when Jeonghan walked in.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” Jeonghan confided with a frown. 

“Should we take him to the doctors? 

“I don’t know, he says it comes and goes and when I press on his belly he said nothing hurts.”

Seungcheol hummed, continuing his soothing motions. “I’ll make a run to the store for some more stomach medicine. Wait, where are the others?” He asked Jeonghan, with a little tremor in his voice. His nerves calmed slightly as he saw Soonyoung and Jihoon come into the living room with a heating pad. He thanked them both and tucked it under Wonwoo’s stomach.

“In the bathroom. Jisoo volunteered for bath duty today. I was making dinner so I haven't checked up on them. I’ll go do that now.”

“No, I’ll do it.” Seungcheol volunteered. “Jihoon, Soonyoung, you think you can watch Wonwoo for me?”

Both of them nodded, taking the responsibility very seriously.

Seungcheol entered the bathroom to be immediately be met with a splash of water to his face. Seungcheol gasped as he wiped his face, his eyes roamed the splatter of water on the tiled floors along with bubbles, spilled shampoo, and other random assortments. Jisoo stood in the bathroom with the shower spray wrapped in his hand. He was the only one wearing clothes while Chan, Hansol, and Mingyu chased each other around the bathroom naked.

“Mingyu!” Jisoo whined. “Stop it! You’re five. Act your age!” He sprayed Mingyu with some water. 

A second later Minghao came running into the bathroom and threw himself in the tub. Mingyu jumped in after him and the two began to playfully tug at each other’s hair. 

“They aren’t listening!” Jisoo whined, stomping his foot.

Seungcheol decided to help him out and took the shower nozzle from him. He ordered the kids to jump into the tub and one by one with the help of Jisoo, rinsed off any grime or dirt. When he finished with all of them, only he and Jisoo remained in the bathroom. 

“Jisoo come on, in the tub.”

Jisoo shook his head in defiance. “I can do it myself, get out.”

Seungcheol nodded, leaving the kid alone. He went instead to the kitchen to check on Jeonghan’s progress. 

“How did practice go?” Jeonghan questioned as he lowered the flame for the pot he had boiling.

“Good actually. Did you know Jihoon has always been good with music?”

“He seems like the type.”

“He did a pretty good job on composing twenty seconds of a track.”

“In one day?”

“Yup. I guess the kid was inspired or something. I just hope when Jihoon reaches his right age, he thinks it's good.” Seungcheol reached out and then started helping Jeonghan cook the rest of the meal.

He sneaked his head out of the kitchen as he heard the television come on. He snorted as he saw eleven kids wrapped in fluffy towels, wet hair dripping on the hardwood floor, and watching tv. 

 

>>>

 

Seungcheol watched on as he saw an eight-year-old Mingyu argue with an eight-year-old Minghao. The screaming just kept getting louder no matter how much Seungcheol intervened. He reached the point where he just sat back on the couch and let the kids have it.

“What is it now?” Jeonghan asked, falling beside him on the couch to enjoy the show.

“I have no idea. Something about stealing clothes.”

“So nothing new?”

“Nope.”

“God, I would hate to see them during puberty.”

The two froze. Slowly, they turned to each other. 

“Puberty,” Jeonghan whispered in fright.

Seungcheol shot up, “Oh fuck no. I saw most of us go through puberty and fuck that, never again.”

“How bad was it?”

Seungcheol pointed to the eight-year-olds still arguing, “Imagine that but like ten times worse and we didn’t even have Minghao with us. Oh god, they are going to be unbearable. I am not going through this twice. You can’t make me!”

Jeonghan stood as well. “We need a find a way to speed this up.”

“I know, but how?!”

“Find what made them change in the first place.”

“Which was?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

Seungcheol glared at Jeonghan’s helpfulness. He sunk back into the couch, watching the eight-year-olds bicker. Seokmin entered the living room and began to scream loudly to drown out the noise. Seungkwan thought the screaming was a competition and then tried to scream louder.

Seungcheol rubbed his temples, trying to drown them out and recall what had occurred before everyone became children. 

He remembered he was in the convenience store with Jeonghan. The two were arguing over...Seungcheol couldn’t even remember. But they were arguing and there was an old lady—

 

>>>

 

“You figured it out, huh?”

Seungcheol felt guilty leaving Jeonghan with the kids again, but most of them were already at an age where they could take care of themselves so Seungcheol didn’t worry...much. What he did have to worry about was the old woman sitting in her stool behind the cash register. Like the last few times he saw her, she was flipping idly through a magazine. The sound of pages turning, irked Seungcheol’s sense of mind. 

“Yes, change it back!” Seungcheol announced loudly, after he stormed in here accusing the woman of witchcraft.

“I can’t,” She yawned. 

Seungcheol’s eye twitched. “Why not?”

“You haven’t learned your lesson.”

“What lesson?”

“Exactly.”

Seungcheol choked on his own spit and leaned forward.  _ “What lesson?” _ He asked again. The woman didn’t look up at him.

“You’ve seen the movies, learn your lesson and everything goes back to normal.”

“And what if I don’t learn my lesson?”

The woman finally closed her magazine and locked eyes with him. Her lips were thinned and the harsh age spots on her face made her look that much more intense. “Then your friends will keep aging one year every day until they can no longer be helpful and are in the grave.”

 

>>>

 

“I have to learn my lesson,” Seungcheol told Jeonghan, after they tucked Chan into bed and finished explaining the situation.

“What lesson?” Jeonghan whispered as they walked to their room.

Seungcheol glanced at the bunk bed and saw Mingyu and Jihoon fast asleep. Seungcheol sighed and sat on his bed. Jeonghan sat beside him.

“How am I supposed to know?”

Jeonghan frowned, “What happens if you don't learn your lesson?”

“Then….then the members keep aging. They aren't going to stop.”

Jeonghan felt an unnamable force suck the breath from his lungs, realizing suddenly what that meant. If they couldn’t solve this, the members would die. An irrational voice in his head took hold of his blood and made it boil for a few seconds. If the members died, it would be Seungcheol’s fault. Seungcheol’s stubbornness would kill them all. He wanted to yell at Seungcheol but another voice told him if he hadn’t yelled at Seungcheol back in that convenience store maybe they wouldn’t have been in this mess. 

He reached out toward Seungcheol’s wrist resting beside his. He wrapped his fingers delicately around them, watching each finger slowly grip the thick wrist. Seungcheol watched as well.

“I think…”Jeonghan began. “You are going to figure this out.”

Jeonghan felt Seungcheol look at him, but he didn’t want to look and he couldn’t quite explain why. Seungcheol was in the same predicament wanting Jeonghan to meet his eyes. He needed Jeonghan to look at him just to make those words true. He needed to know everything was truly going to work out.

But perhaps, Jeonghan didn’t know himself and the reason Jeonghan gripped him so tightly now was because Jeonghan was trying to ground himself. Jeonghan was terrified too.

Seungcheol looked back to their hands and with his free one, gently untangled Jeonghan’s fingers. Jeonghan’s fingers sought purchase so Seungcheol let him cling to his hand. Both of them watched their fingers lace. Seungcheol absentmindedly ran his thumb along Jeonghan’s bony unique fingers.

Jeonghan tried to pull back, feeling self-conscious about his fingers, and Seungcheol chose that moment to lock eyes with Jeonghan.

Jeonghan’s mouth parted at the intensity in Seungcheol’s gaze. Seungcheol kept his voice level and low as he said, “You’re right. I am going to figure this out.”

Jeonghan’s tense shoulders eased, but before Jeonghan could say anything, they heard a whine from the door. They pulled away from each other quickly to look at the small child rubbing his eyes.

“Hansol, what’s wrong?” Jeonghan asked.

Hansol walked slowly into the room until he was standing in front of them. “I had a bad nightmare,” He whimpered.

“Do you want to sleep with me tonight?” Jeonghan said, rubbing his hands along Hansol’s tiny arms and shoulders.

Hansol shook his head and pointed to Seungcheol. Seungcheol eyes widened a little in surprise. But, he nodded and said it was okay. 

Jeonghan eyed them for a moment and climbed up his bunk bed, while Hansol crawled into Seungcheol’s.

Seungcheol smiled letting the boy cling to him as needed. The boy settled in quickly and Seungcheol spent his time looking at the top bunk, wanting to cry. 

 

>>>

 

“Soonyoung, what did I say?” Seungcheol spoke firmly.

Soonyoung stopped in his tracks and looked sheepishly at Seungcheol. “No running in the house.”

“So what were you just doing?”

Soonyoung pouted, “It’s not fair, Seokmin stole my phone.”

“I did not!” Came Seokmin’s voice from the kitchen. “I’ve been helping Jeonghan cook dinner!”

“You’re not even helping! Get away from my curry potatoes, you’re gonna ruin them!” Mingyu’s indignant voice came from the kitchen as well.

Seungcheol shook his head, why was everyone so goddamn loud in this house.

“Then who took my phone?” Soonyoung whined and stomped his foot. 

A small eleven-year-old boy walked into the living room with a phone in his hands. “I did,” Jihoon said calmly.

Soonyoung didn’t seem to know whether to tackle the smaller one to the ground or scream, both options would result in a very passive aggressive Jihoon.

“Jihoon!” Soonyoung chose to whine instead.

“What?”

“That’s mine, use your own.”

“Mine is dead.”

“You have a charger.”

Jihoon shrugged and trotted toward the couch. Soonyoung stalked after him, voice louder than ever. He resorted to trying to act cute to get his phone back, it wasn’t working very well for him. Jihoon set his palm flat on Soonyoung’s face before shoving him away. Soonyoung came back to him like a magnet. Jihoon grimaced but after the second attempt, he let Soonyoung cling to him. It was obvious though, Jihoon wasn’t going to return the phone until he was finished with his game

Shortly after, Minghao and Mingyu came out of the kitchen arguing over sauces or something of the sorts as they began to lay out different plates on the floor. Seungkwan and Chan came trotting inside with their hands filled with utensils, trying to help the best they could. 

Seungcheol found himself smiling at the sight, but recalling what he learned the night prior, Seungcheol felt that perfect domestic image shatter. His muscles tensed uncomfortably and his heart pounded erratically against his ribcage. 

Jisoo entered the living room next, and watching the young child struggle in carrying the large steaming pot, made Seungcheol breathe a little easier. He forced himself to banish the negative thoughts and help Jisoo with the food. 

When it came to food, one thing did not change about the group dynamics, everyone was always quick to come when food was announced ready. They all gathered in a circle on the floor, grabbing at the food the others had made. 

Soonyoung led the conversation for most of dinner. He told the younger ones what the company building looked like and how he was having a lot of fun designing choreography. He stood up rapidly, nearly knocking his plate, to show them what he had made. Again it was mindless waving of arms and legs, but the others gave him the reaction he wanted. 

In that brief moment, Seungcheol truly forgot about the problem at hand. He felt at ease and basked in the warmth of it all. But when Mingyu stood to try to copy Soonyoung, Seungcheol realized that Mingyu now towered over all the others. It reminded him of how little time he had left to solve all of this. Taking his plate, he put it on the ground. He didn’t touch his plate at all for the rest of dinner, and did not speak. He was not in the mood to handle any of this. 

The children broke his thoughts though. He looked around and saw the kids getting up with their plates and taking them to the kitchen to clean up. Pleasant surprise strummed Seungcheol’s heart when he realized he didn’t even have to tell them. Without any prompting, the kids cleaned up the mess.

Seungcheol met Jeonghan’s eyes, “Umm…”

Jeonghan shrugged, “Just accept it.” Jeonghan stood up and headed to the couch to relax. 

“You’re such a lazy bastard,” Seungcheol teased.

Jeonghan grinned and patted the cushion beside him. Seungcheol plopped next to him, his arm coming around the other’s shoulders. 

“Did you put them up to this?” Seungcheol questioned.

“For once, no.”

“Really?”

“I had no part in the responsible behavior of our children.”

Seungcheol laughed. The other always had a way in distracting him from everything, even when those distractions resulted in wanting to choke Jeonghan to death. “I would have taken the credit,” Seungcheol admitted. 

Jeonghan leaned into him, “And what would you have gained by taking the credit?” 

“Proof that I’m the better parent.”

Jeonghan snorted, “Who's the one who has been cooking?”

“You hardly cooked. Once Mingyu turned six he started making our meals.”

“I made their beds.”

“Soonyoung helped you.”

“I changed Chan’s diapers.”

“And so did I.”

_ “Why are you arguing?” _

They both faced the noise and saw Chan pouting. 

“They’re not fighting,” Jisoo informed coming into the room. The others came out of the kitchen one by one. Jisoo crawled in between both Jeonghan and Seungcheol, “That’s how they flirt.”

“It’s gross,” Jihoon said next. “It’s best when you ignore them, Chan.”

Jeonghan smirked, “Awww our little boys don’t like a little PDA.” Jeonghan leaned over Jisoo and pecked Seungcheol right on the nose. Seungcheol was a little taken back, but laughed at the other’s reactions. 

All the boys made over exaggerated gagging noises. They rushed at both of them and kicked them off the couch as punishment. Jeonghan and Seungcheol slid down the couch in hysterics, struggling to wrestle eleven children. They both cried out in defeat when they heard Hansol’s battle cry. 

They settled down within a few minutes. All the kids had somehow managed to pile on the couch and Seungcheol wanted to snap a pic to remember this strange event. He fought the urge though, remembering why they were kids in the first place.

But all in all, it wasn’t as terrible as it could have been, Seungcheol thought. They were kids yes, but they had all been helpful. Mingyu always wanted to cook, Minghao volunteered to clean up after everyone, and Seokmin always helpfully laid out everyone’s clothes. The others had been helpful in their own way as well. Whenever they saw that Jeonghan and Seungcheol were busy with someone or something, they would calmly wait their turn or try to find the answer for themselves. 

All of them were very self-sufficient and helpful to the point Seungcheol felt as if he wasn’t needed.

_ —Oh.   _

With the sudden epiphany, Seungcheol spun around to look at the couch, expecting all of them to suddenly pop back to their normal selves, but nothing happened. All of them were quietly munching on snacks as they continued to watch tv. 

Seungcheol sighed and leaned back against the bottom of the couch. It was okay—he would find another way.

 

>>>

 

Seungcheol didn’t expect to be woken up later that night by a very distressed Jisoo. Seungcheol rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at the other. Only a few hours had passed, but Seungcheol could already see the way Jisoo looked more like a young teenager than a child now. The other had to be thirteen by now.

“What’s wrong?” Seungcheol asked, sitting up.

Jisoo balled his fist and looked down at his feet, “Iwetthebed.”

“What?” Seungcheol questioned again.

“Iwetthebed.”

Seungcheol narrowed his eyes and tried to decipher Jisoo’s words. “You wet the bed?” Seungcheol asked.

Jisoo nodded, “Yeah, I woke up all sweaty and then I woke up with the insides of my shorts wet and sticky and I don’t want you getting mad at me—”

And Seungcheol immediately understood what had happened. It was Jisoo’s first wet dream. Fuck. Puberty was just around the corner for all of them.

“Jisoo, listen to me. You did nothing wrong. It’s normal.”

“But it’s never happened to me before.”

“Yes, it has. It’s happened to all of us.”

Jisoo’s eyes scrunched in obvious confusion.

Seungcheol bit his lip and decided then and there he was not going to have this conversation with Jisoo. Jisoo was a twenty-year-old man, not a thirteen-year-old kid. 

“Jisoo, go wake up the others and tell them to meet me in the living room.”

“Why?”

“You are not in trouble, I promise. I just need everyone to wake up.”

Jisoo nodded and left the room hesitantly. Seungcheol groaned aloud and jumped out of bed. He reached on top of the bunk to wake up Jeonghan. Jeonghan murmured a curse word at him before fully waking, “What?”

“Wake up. We are having a group meeting.”

Jeonghan grunted in frustration but did as he was told. Seungcheol woke up Mingyu and Jihoon next. The four of them entered the living room to a bunch of sleepy kids and Seungcheol steeled himself for this brutal conversation.

He sat on the couch and the others sat on the floor, reminding Seungcheol of the day they had appeared as toddlers. 

“Okay,” Seungcheol began rubbing his hands together in apprehension. “I have something to tell you.”

They looked at him expectantly but with a bit of worry at the late call of this meeting. Seungcheol sucked in a breath, “What you are right now isn’t who you really are. Jisoo you are not thirteen.”

“Of course I am.”

“No, you are twenty-years-old.” 

“What?”

“All of you are a lot older than what you are. I just—I messed up. Badly. I angered this old lady at this convenience store and she made all of you into kids. Just a few days ago, Chan was only one.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Chan spoke, clearly confused.    

“You were. Jeonghan and I changed your diapers.”

“So…” Wonwoo spoke, “If you angered the old lady, why don’t you just apologize for what you did.”

“It’s not simple. I did something that got her upset and she said I have to learn my lesson.”

“And if you don’t?” Jihoon questioned, picking up the situation quickly. God, why did he have to be so bright?

Seungcheol licked his lips, “That’s well...you are going to continue aging a year every single day until you die. I won’t be able to stop it.” Seungcheol sucked in a breath as he felt Jeonghan press a hand against his shoulder blades. It grounded him for a single second, but not long enough. “And I’m so sorry. I just, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or learn to get you back to normal. I’m going to lose all of you in the slowest most excruciating way possible. What am I going to do to suddenly find you old and dead?”

“We will find a way,” Soonyoung suddenly said. “We will help you.”

Seungcheol lifted his head, not realizing he had buried it in his hands. “But how?”

“I don’t know, but we are going to find a way. If what you said is right and I’m really a handsome nineteen year old then I want to go back to that.”

“Same!” Jun added. “I don’t want to keep aging until I’m old and wrinkly.”

“I’m sure the internet has some answers anyway,” Jihoon said, pulling out Soonyoung’s phone from his pocket. He typed away quickly. The others did the same. 

“Wait guys!” Seungcheol laughed a little bitterly. “It doesn’t work that way, I have to learn the lesson myself.”

He was met with eleven different stares of “I don’t care” before they went back to reading. 

“Jeonghan?” Seungcheol scoffed in disbelief, “Do you see what they are doing? They can’t—”

Jeonghan’s hand pressed more firmly on his back, “They might not be able to find you an answer but they’re trying. Let them try, maybe they’re right. We can help.”

“But—”

“But  _ maybe _ there’s a chance.”

Seungcheol met Jeonghan’s gaze and for a few moments he did not mind giving the reigns of the strong pillar of support to someone else. Jeonghan took them with a certain level of finesse and maturity. He patted Seungcheol on the back and joined the kids, trying to help them refine their search.

Seungcheol snorted. He couldn’t believe it? These kids—no his  _ friends _ , even if the possibility of changing them all back to normal was futile they all still wanted to help. It was that certain level of hopefulness and fraternity that had Seungcheol crawling on the floor as well. Okay, he could do this. They could all do this. Seungcheol could rely and trust in them to find the answer for him. He didn’t have to do this alone.

 

>>>

 

Seungcheol woke up with a loud pained groan spilling from his lips. He cupped his crotch, feeling someone’s knobby knee ram straight to his dick. He wanted to roll over but a body beside him was preventing him too. He recalled briefly that after last night’s research, they all slowly drifted off one by one. And now, Seungcheol was waking up still feeling tired and a throbbing pain between his legs.

“Sorry,” He heard Wonwoo’s deep voice mutter.

“It’s okay, it was an acci—” Seungcheol’s eyes popped open upon hearing that familiar voice.

He forgot the pain in favor of crying out in joy. Right in front of him was the Wonwoo he had come to know and love. Wonwoo was back. Seungcheol hollered in delight and threw himself on Wonwoo. God, he didn’t think he would ever be this happy to see this tall twig of a friend. 

The commotion woke up the others soon after, but within seconds, everyone began shouting in delight that they were finally back to normal. 

Seungcheol could feel the corners of his eyes tickling with tears, but he really didn’t care. Cause he finally understood. 

Seungcheol heard someone knocking on the front door but he ignored it in favor of being smothered underneath Mingyu. 

The knocking kept getting louder though so Jisoo rose from the pile and went to answer the door.

“So?” Came the disappointed voice of their vocal instructor, Doogi. “No one is really sick and you have just been lazing around when your debut is just around the corner?”

And at that moment, Seungcheol was actually blessed to hear Wonwoo vomit right in his lap.

The others groaned and stood quickly to their feet. Seungcheol just took it. He didn’t fucking care at all. Wonwoo was back to normal, sort-of but it was enough to sort out any other worries.

“Oh my god, Wonwoo!” Doogi cried. He rushed forward once Wonwoo stopped vomiting.

“The others started feeling better last night,” Jeonghan lied smoothly. “Wonwoo is still not feeling well.”

Doogi sighed, “Okay, well you guys need to go into the studio because your managers are going to hunt you down if you don’t. But Seungcheol, take Wonwoo to the hospital please.”

“I can do it!” Mingyu offered.

“Okay,” Seungcheol smiled, knowing he could rely on the other. “Just remember to take the medicine we’ve been giving him.”

Mingyu saluted like a boy scout and rushed to the rooms to get him and Wonwoo some fresh clothes.

“You okay with that?” Doogi asked him. “Giving Mingyu such a big responsibility?”

“Yeah, he’s a big boy. He can handle it no problem.”

Doogi looked at him very oddly but stood up, “Alright, everyone you have ten minutes to get ready otherwise I tell your managers you’ve been slacking off.”

Everyone, other than Wonwoo, got to their feet and dashed like mad to get showered and dressed.

 

>>>

 

“Whose baby are you?” Jeonghan cooed, pinching Chan’s cheek. 

Chan shoved Jeonghan practically on the other side of the couch, “No, Jeonghan.”

“Come on,” Jeonghan grinned, “I changed your diapers. You are now considered my child.”

“Please don’t remind me.” Chan whined. The others laughed. It was only a few hours after they had all changed back to their regular ages and they were all sitting in the living room, discussing the strange hectic week. Wonwoo was the only one missing. He was napping in his dorm after the doctors diagnosed him with gastritis. Luckily, it wasn’t that serious but Wonwoo wouldn’t be able to participate with them during promotions. The doctors gave strict orders he needed his rest. 

“At least you had Jeonghan potty train you,” Seungkwan exclaimed. “Seungcheol was so awkward about it.”

“You wanted me to hold your dick for you!” Seungcheol cried out and then, “Wait a sec, you guys remember?”

“Sadly,” Jihoon shivered. “Don’t ever wipe my ass again and don’t ever let tiny-me near my computer again.”

“It’s not like it was bad. The title track is almost done,” Soonyoung said. “And mini-me created awesome choreography, just proving to everyone how amazing I am.”

They all snorted at that and continued to rant of how unbearable it was to be stuck in a child’s body without the proper means of communication or brain development to act and speak as they wanted to. 

When Seungcheol got tired of Seungkwan explaining to everyone how cute Hansol’s child-sized penis was, Seungcheol set them all to bed. No one argued, surprisingly. It probably had to do with the fact that Seungcheol (and Jeonghan—god forbid Jeonghan) had an endless amount of blackmail to use on them based on how they used to act as kids. 

“So what lesson did you learn?” Jeonghan asked, when Seungcheol finished brushing his teeth. He saw Jeonghan sitting on his bed, waiting for him to return. Mingyu and Jihoon were still in the other bathroom, getting ready to head to bed themselves.

Seungcheol collapsed on his bed. Jeonghan complained as Seungcheol dragged him down by the neck to lie beside him. When they were both settled, Seungcheol answered Jeonghan’s question, “I realized I had to stop acting so goddamn stubborn.”

Jeonghan snorted. 

“Hey,” Seungcheol said as casually as he could, “Thanks for everything. I couldn’t have imagined doing this on my own. I don’t think I could even have handled little you anyway.”

“Probably not. I used to like sneaking out of the house.”

“Oh god, I would have torn the city apart. But in all seriousness, I mean it. Thank you so much.” And Seungcheol didn’t know what compelled him to but he had reciprocated the gesture Jeonghan had done on him as a joke. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to Jeonghan’s nose. He hadn’t meant for it to linger, but when he finally pulled back he saw that Jeonghan’s cheeks were bright red.

“Yeah, no problem,” Jeonghan muttered awkwardly.

“Ewww guys, stop with the PDA,” Jihoon’s voice filtered into the room as he walked inside, Mingyu right behind him.

“I think it’s sweet,” Mingyu complimented. “They’re like actual parents, you know?”

Seungcheol bid them goodnight by flipping them off.

They flipped him off in return. 

They all got into their beds and when the lights were finally off and they were slowly drifting to bed, Jeonghan’s voice woke them with a start.

“Oh no, I forgot to tuck Chan into bed.” 

A groan of annoyance was heard a room over. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And for the next chap we move onto the next au!
> 
> Also as a note, the rating will go down to M for this story. Sorry about that.


	3. The Justice League of Super Seventeen pt.1

Chocolate and pine wood flooded Minghao’s nose. The smell comforted him and made him want to crawl deeper under the covers. He felt exceptionally warm today. His blankets flirted with him to keep his eyes closed and return to a peaceful slumber.

_ “—Hao! Holy fucking shit!” _

Minghao grimaced hearing Mingyu’s voice so early in the morning. He opened his eyes to glare at the idiot. However, the fire on his bedsheets and on his nightstand left him unable to move at all.

The fire engulfed his entire bed and his now alert state made the flames grow. Smoke began to fill the room and although he knew he had to get the  _ fuck  _ off the bed, he also wondered why the _ fuck _ he wasn’t being burned alive? Not that he wanted to. Knock on wood, you know, if his nightstand wasn’t already being charred. Ah, and there went his pinewood cologne and his last piece of chocolate he forgot to eat last night.  

“Get up!” Mingyu reached toward him to get him away from danger.

Once Mingyu’s hand made contact with him, Minghao felt a sting shoot up his entire arm. He cried out in pain. Ice crystals traveled up his entire arm and they spread to the bed and the rest of the room.

Both of them screamed.

And let Minghao hold it over everyone’s head later on that it was their screams, not the fact the dorm almost  _ burned to the ground _ that woke everyone up.

Those who were in the same room suddenly bolted from their sleep, and a flurry of very strange commotion happened.

Mingyu at this point had let go of Minghao, but Minghao couldn’t move due to the amount of ice on his bed. He looked to his right and saw Jun’s frightened face. Jun’s eyes bugged out of his head and one minute he was on his bed and the next he just completely phased through it and fell to the ground with a dull thunk. Seokmin shrieked at the sight and tried to go toward Jun, but Seokmin couldn’t move his legs as he suddenly shot into the air and hit the ceiling, with no apparent way to get down.

“What the fuck is going on?” Minghao and Seungcheol shouted in tandem. Minghao turned to Seungcheol with wide eyes as he stood in the doorway.

He never felt more thankful to see him, maybe he could offer some answers.

But the commotion (disaster) kept coming. Seungkwan popped out nowhere, literally from nowhere, because Minghao did not know how Seungkwan was suddenly in his lap.

And because the universe hated Minghao, it didn’t even let him have his own breakdown first because Jihoon entered the room, shouting. Tears caked his red cheeks.

“Will all of you shut the hell up?!” Jihoon clutched his head. Jihoon wavered on his feet, ready to pass out, but Seungcheol jumped forward a little too quickly, and caught him before he fell. A passed out Jihoon caused panic across the entire dorm.

However, Soonyoung’s arrival in the room suddenly and unnaturally calmed everyone down. He rushed toward Jihoon, taking him from Seungcheol’s arms.

Minghao took deep breaths and glanced at Seungkwan as Mingyu shoved him off the bed.

“How the hell are you not burned?” Mingyu hissed, pulling Minghao to his feet and checking for injuries.

“How the fuck did you suddenly turn into a fire extinguisher?” Minghao shot back, pulling his arm away from Mingyu’s prodding cold hands.

“Uhhh...guys?” Seokmin whimpered, still floating above them.

They all wanted to scream but Soonyoung’s presence for some unknown reason had a tight hold on their throats.

Jisoo walked slowly toward Seokmin and pulled him back to the ground.

“Ummm, meeting?” Seungcheol asked tentatively.

They nodded. Hansol helped Jun from underneath the bed and they all shuffled toward the living room.

They sat down and Seungkwan broke the silence, “Okay, I’m going to say it first, what the actual fuck?”

“Wait,” Hansol said, looking around. “Where are Wonwoo, Chan, and Jeonghan?”

They all turned to their almighty leader. He groaned and stood, “Try to get Jihoon to wake up,” He told Soonyoung.

Soonyoung glared at him, “Yeah because I’ve been doing the exact opposite.”

Seungcheol sighed, leaving the others.

Minghao watched Seungcheol leave for a moment before looking down at his hands. Really, how had he not been burned? He turned his hands over and didn’t notice a single blemish.

He jumped in his seat as he heard Seokmin shout, “Oh my god, I got it! We’re superheroes!”

The others released a cry of indignation at Seokmin’s declaration.

“No, think about it! I was just flying! You nearly burned the dorm down!” Seokmin accused.

A silence filled the living room...in which Chan’s screams immediately broke it.

“Get out of my dreams, you creep!” Chan shrieked. He came into the living room with the others behind him.

The youngest’s eyes opened wide when he saw everyone. “What?”

Jun sighed and pointed at Seokmin, “Seokmin, thinks we have powers.”

“Why would we have powers?” Hansol questioned, scared to touch anything.

All of them were silent again, but Seungcheol groaned out. “Okay, I know this is going to sound weird, but did anyone piss off any old ladies in the past week?”

Everyone shook their heads.

Seungcheol hung his, “Because we might be in the same dilemma we were when I accidentally turned you into kids.”

“So?” Jisoo asked, “Someone accidentally gave us powers.”

“That’s a lot cooler than turning into kids, I don’t see a downside to this,” Seungkwan stated.

At that moment, Seokmin randomly started floating to the ceiling and Mingyu was causing the temperature to drop rapidly in the dorm.

“Except for the fact you can’t control your powers,” Seungcheol shivered, breath visible. “Wait a minute, did everyone get powers?”

Minghao reached out and touched Mingyu, the dorm started returning to normal once more. “Well Mingyu and Seokmin apparently do. Ice and flight?” Minghao said.

Seungkwan nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah and you have fire. Jun can go through things, and I have teleportation powers!”

“Why is no one freaked out by this?” Soonyoung questioned looking at Seungcheol.

“Because we have powers!” Seungkwan shouted.

Minghao had to give him that one. Yeah, he almost burned down the dorm, but they had powers. That was cool.

Seungcheol shrugged, “Is it any weirder than me changing your diapers?”

“Uhhhh...guys?” Seokmin asked. “A little help here.”

Jeonghan reached out for him and brought him down. “Now the question again, did all of us get powers?” Jeonghan questioned.

“I don’t know,” Seungcheol said, naturally taking charge. “I think our safest bet is just carry on like normal. If someone is constantly holding Seokmin. I don’t think it would be a problem. We have a fansign to go to in a few hours. So I suggest we start getting ready.”

“What about Jihoon?” Soonyoung asked.

Jun suddenly phased through the couch and hit the wooden floor. His shriek of pain woke Jihoon with a start.

“That takes care of that problem,” Minghao said.

 

>>>

 

“Myungho,” One of the fans whined, “Why are your hands so hot? Are you sick?” Minghao forced a smile as he held hands with her across the fansign table.

“I’m a little under the weather.”

She pouted and was about to say something else but the staff had them switch. As the fans moved on to the next member, Mingyu sitting beside him whispered in his ear, “Hey, that girl with the bow tie is cute, right?”

Minghao didn’t get to reply. The water bottle on his table distracted him as it began to boil and cloud. Minghao reached for it, but the bottle quickly flew at him and into his lap. Minghao rusted in place. How did that happen?

Cautiously, he turned to his side and saw Hansol’s eyes widen.

“Did you do that?” Minghao whispered.

Hansol shrugged. The bottle in front of Hansol began to float a few centimeters off the table. Both panicked but were saved from any fans’ watchful eyes as Junhui suddenly phased through his chair. 

All the fans cried out in worry, allowing Hansol to set the bottle safely back on the table. It took about a minute or two to quiet the fans as Junhui stood to his feet. Thankfully, the table had blocked the odd incident, so no one quite understood how Junhui fell.

Minghao returned his attention back to the fan in front of him and smiled awkwardly.

 

>>>

 

The fansign could have gone a lot worse. The group impressed Minghao as they didn’t have any major disasters. The worst that had happened was that Seokmin had jumped a little suspiciously high and Soonyoung was able to catch him before he floated in the air.

Now, everyone was back at the company. They were chilling the in the practice room after Soonyoung had said he wasn’t happy with a part of their Pretty U performance and wanted them to refine it for the next music show. They practiced without any mishaps.

After their impromptu practice, Minghao sat against the mirror in a small group with Jihoon, Seungcheol, Wonwoo, and Mingyu.

“I just don’t get it,” Seungcheol whined. “Why didn’t I get any powers?”

“Are you honestly complaining?” Jihoon grimaced as he kept rubbing his temples.

“Yes. Yes, I am. Whoever pissed off the old lady is a genius because how can you say that’s not cool.” He pointed to the others on the opposite side of the room. Seungkwan giggled as he kept teleporting to different locations as Seokmin flew overhead, trying to catch him. Hansol, who recently discovered he was a telekinetic was trying to get everyone’s water bottles to float in a neat circle.

“It’s very cool,” Wonwoo smirked.

“Wait, did you get powers?” Seungcheol hissed, leaning forward.

Wonwoo shrugged, “Ask me something.”

“What?” Mingyu giggled.

“Ask me something.”

Jihoon seemed curious so he asked first, “What’s the square root of 573?”

“23.937 with a few decimals left over,” Wonwoo replied.

“Holy fuck is your power a calculator?” Mingyu gaped in awe.

“Not exactly.”

Wonwoo lifted his hand and mimed scrolling through a phone. Everyone looked at each other in confusion as Wonwoo kept scrolling and flicking his thumb and forefinger across the air.

“Umm...Wonwoo?” Mingyu asked.

“Our fans liked the fansign. There’s a bunch of videos of Jun falling on his ass.” He smirked.

All of them continued to remain quiet. Wonwoo rolled his eyes, “I can read telecommunication wavelengths and electromagnetic wavelengths—at least that’s what google says.”

“And what does that mean exactly?” Jihoon asked. Minghao could see his cheeks expand a little in jealousy.

“If there is a computer or cellphone signal I can see and read it,” Wonwoo explained, “There’s a hovering computer screen right in front of me right now. I’m on twitter.”

“You’re a super computer,” Seungcheol said.

“Yup.” Wonwoo smiled.

Seungcheol fell back against the wooden floor and groaned. “And that is so not fair.”

Minghao heard footsteps approach and saw Jeonghan hovering over Seungcheol with a smile. “What’s not fair?”

“Seungcheol is jealous he’s realizing he’s the only one with powers,” Mingyu answered.

Jeonghan snorted and then directed to the whole group, “Jisoo and I were gonna make a run to the convenience store, you guys want anything?”

Seungcheol managed to light up at the prospect of food and so did everyone else. They each gave their orders and Jeonghan wrote their orders on his phone. He gave them a wave and left the practice room with Jisoo.

When the door shut behind him, Jihoon gagged. “Ah, that is—no, oh my god. I did not need to know that. Seungcheol, oh my fucking god, that is disgusting.”

Seungcheol stared blankly at Jihoon, mostly in confusion.

“You don’t need to be a mind reader to know that Seungcheol has been checking out Jeonghan,”  Wonwoo chuckled.

“Yeah, but you aren’t the one hearing it!” Jihoon kept gagging. “Seungcheol, seriously what the absolute fuck.”

Seungcheol suddenly realized that Jihoon had been privy to his less than wholesome thoughts. “Keep it down, will you.” He glanced anxiously to the younger ones on the other side of the room.

Minghao bit his tongue to avoid laughing, but Mingyu beside him obviously had no qualms. His laughter came out like a dog and Minghao wanted to slap a hand over his mouth to get him to shut up. Finally, his laughter quelled to a normal level and he leaned in toward Minghao.

Minghao tensed. He felt Mingyu’s cold lips press against his hot ear as he whispered, “Aww, our poor Jihoonnie has to read our leader’s perverted thoughts.”

Minghao did not say anything, so Mingyu kept whispering cool breaths into his ear, “Do you think he can read everyone’s thoughts at the same time? Cause during the fansign that girl—”

Mingyu’s words cut short as suddenly a flame appeared between them. Mingyu yelped and rolled backwards to get away from the fire. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the two. Minghao stared at the fire with contempt and tried to make it disappear. It wasn’t working and instead, the fire grew larger until it was licking at Minghao’s shoulders.

Everyone else at this point stood up and shouted at him to put it out.

“I’m trying!” Minghao hissed. He stood up and concentrated to the best of his ability. His anger grew as Mingyu stepped forward and stretched both arms toward the fire.

Minghao saw Mingyu’s right eyebrow twitch and watched the elder lick his lips. Like in the morning, ice shot of Mingyu’s hands and onto the fire. A white steam floated into the air leaving only a black charred piece of the floor near the mirror.

Everyone gasped in relief, but for some reason even though the fire was already out, Minghao could still feel it. It felt hot against his stomach and pushed out through his mouth transforming into cruel words. “I had it!” Minghao shouted at Mingyu.

“That didn’t look like you had it. The fire was growing,” Mingyu replied. “You were going to burn the practice room down.”

“No, I wasn’t!” Minghao continued screaming. “I just needed a minute. You and your dumb overgrown head just needed to be the hero. Don’t you get tired of being the center of attention all the time?”

“What’s wrong with you? Why are you so angry?”

“I’m not angry. You just had to show off that you can control these stupid powers we got a few hours ago and made me look like the dangerous idiot.”

“Hey there, guys calm down,” Soonyoung spoke. Minghao hadn’t noticed Soonyoung approach them. But Soonyoung placed both hands on Minghao and Mingyu and the fire in Minghao’s pit dimmed to an ember. That was weird and Mingyu seemed to have noticed too as all tension left them too quickly to be normal.

Soonyoung let go of them and stepped back awkwardly. “Um...sorry?”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Mingyu spoke to Soonyoung and most definitely not Minghao. He turned on his heel and left the practice room. Minghao felt his stomach flip over, watching him go.

“How did you do that?” Chan asked Soonyoung in awe, knowing that a fight between the most hot-tempered was nearly impossible to get between.

Minghao answered for Soonyoung, “He controlled our emotions.”

He sighed and went to go sit down at his same spot again. He glared at the door wishing Mingyu to come back, only so he could bang Mingyu’s face against the floor.

Minghao ignored Jihoon’s snort. The man sat in front of him and nudged him with his foot, “Hey, I can hear you. If you are going to plot Mingyu’s murder, you are going to have to do it without any witnesses.”

Minghao felt steam escape through his nose as he calmed down. He managed a smile, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

A few minutes of Minghao managing his breathing, Jeonghan and Jisoo arrived with several plastic bags and junk food for everyone. Seokmin landed on the ground and wherever Junhui had been, suddenly phased through the wall rushing for his food. They handed the food to everyone and sat together in the center of the room.

“Where’s Mingyu?” Jeonghan asked.

But before anyone could answer him, Jisoo gasped and reached forward for Seokmin’s cola before he could open it.

“What?” Seokmin whined.

Jisoo looked cautiously at the bottle and then opened it himself. Everyone gasped and leaned back as the cola sprayed all over Jisoo’s face. Seungcheol pouted and reached for some napkins so Jisoo could clean up.

“Holy fuck,” Jisoo cursed.

They all froze. Jisoo rarely cursed. He looked at the cola back in his hand, “That was so weird.”

“What was?” Jeonghan asked, taking the napkins from Seungcheol so he could wipe at his own shirt.

“The coke exploded on Seokmin. But it didn’t.”

“Yeah cause it exploded on you,” Jeonghan said. “How did you know it was going to explode anyway?”

“Because it did explode on Seokmin and it happened—”

“Oh my god!” Seungkwan shouted in English. He repeated it loudly to get everyone’s attention. “You’re a time traveler!”  

“That’s ridiculous,” Jihoon said.

“Except he did it, right Jisoo?”

Jisoo shrugged and when he was finally clean, he reached for his small pastry. And then said, “Well Chan has super strength.”

“How do you know that?” Hansol questioned, right at the moment Chan accidentally squeezed his cola bottle from just picking it up.

Seungcheol whined pathetically, now realizing he was the only one who didn’t have any powers.

 

 

>>>

 

Jihoon had all the lights off in the studio as he sat curled against his couch. He had his eyes shut tight until he could feel the strain of his muscles begging to be let go. He had come here with the intention of quieting down the voices and while on some level it helped, he could still hear a few random ramblings that weren’t his from people who walked near his door. This mind reading thing was getting incredibly annoying. From listening to Seungcheol’s perverted thoughts, Seokmin’s random’s Overwatch theme song playing nonstop in his head, to Jun’s incessant Chinese mutterings wanted Jihoon to murder all of them. Seungcheol definitely being first.

He whined as he heard a voice reach inside his head.

_ Where the fuck is he? _

He recognized the voice as Soonyoung’s. Jihoon looked around his studio, looking for a place to hide to avoid him, but Soonyoung opened the door to his studio before he could plan to hide behind his desk.

_ Ah, shit. _

“Jihoon?”

Jihoon grimaced and pressed his forehead to his knees.

_ Oh fuck, he’s in pain. _

He heard Soonyoung’s thoughts and footsteps get closer and louder. The couch creaked as Soonyoung sat beside him.

“What’s up?” Jihoon tried to come off as casual.

“Well, Hansol is playing keeping away with the others using his powers. Chan is benchpressing Seungkwan right now, so…”

“So?”

Soonyoung shrugged.

“So I thought I could play with my powers too?” Jihoon turned his face and came up a bit to look at Soonyoung with confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m asking for permission, if I could try something.”

Jihoon recalled yesterday during practice, Minghao had mentioned Soonyoung could control emotions. Jihoon licked his lips and nodded. Soonyoung pressed a hand to his shoulder and everything finally grew quiet until only his voice could be heard in his head.

The hard line against his shoulders disappeared and Jihoon found he could breathe easier.

“Thank you,” He breathed out.

Soonyoung smiled softly at him and kept his hand there. Jihoon leaned into it and pressed his head against the back of the couch. His migraine settled into something manageable and he took even breaths with his eyes closed.

Invasively, his own thoughts supplied him with the reminder he hadn’t been like this with Soonyoung in months. Jihoon could recall with clarity during their pre debut days how much time they would spend together whether it was staying up late at night to play an extra fifteen minutes on their video game console or head down to get some ramen. Now, they still spent time together. Hell, out of everyone they spent the most time together.

It was required.

They constantly conferenced with each other about choreography and music. Their jobs needed them to be in constant communication.

But this—just sitting in comfortable silence—Jihoon really could not remember when the last time that was.

He opened his eyes after several minutes and pressed his cheek against the couch to look more clearly at Soonyoung.

The other man was awake but had his eyes closed. Jihoon could see his eyelashes prodding at chubby cheeks.

“Feel better?” Soonyoung asked, sensing he was being stared at.

“Much. Again, thanks.”

“No problem.”

Jihoon felt Soonyoung’s hand travel up his shoulder to the back of his neck. From the skin to skin contact, Jihoon felt his body turn to jello and relax even further.

“You know this powers thing isn’t that bad,” Jihoon sighed.

“Yup, who do you think was the one who caused this?”

“Does it matter?”

“They are the reason you are listening to Seungcheol’s perverted mind.”

Jihoon snorted, with Soonyoung’s fingers against his neck, he couldn’t even be mad, “Better than having Seungcheol give me a bath.”

Soonyoung giggled, “Aw, but I liked bath time. And you were super cute all naked and chubby splashing with all the bubbles.”

Jihoon reached out to punch Soonyoung’s thigh with the side of his fist. “You were an annoying brat.”

“Am I still one?”

Jihoon looked back at Soonyoung. Their eyes met. Jihoon smiled, melting even more with Soonyoung’s ability. “Absolutely.”

Soonyoung smiled until his eyes turned into slits. “Good.”

 

 

>>>

 

It had been a week. A goddamn week with these stupid powers. Several of the members had gotten used to them and were having the time of their lives with them. Minghao at some point got control of his powers—well, somewhat. He believed Soonyoung to be the cause of it. The other was always touching him, getting him to relax. Minghao would have been upset with Soonyoung, but again powers, and Minghao couldn’t be mad at him.

But he didn’t need Soonyoung for everything to calm himself down. He had discovered taking a shower usually did the trick.

He turned on the shower handle and turned it to the hottest setting. He waited a moment for it to heat all the way before shedding his clothes and climbing inside.

A week ago, he wouldn’t have been able to handle this setting on the shower. It would have burned his skin. But now, he could only feel warmth settle in his bones.

He leaned his head back, letting the spray hit directly on his face.

He breathed out, feeling steam escape his own mouth. He did it a few times, feeling the fire in his belly rise and fall in an even rhythm. He took a deep breath and reached inside the water. The water boiled at his feet and cascaded scalding hot on his body.

It was fascinating. The fire in him felt so alive. He wanted to reach inside and touch it himself.

After a few minutes, he tensed hearing the bathroom door open.

“Hao?” He heard Mingyu question.

“What?”

“Okay, just wanted to make sure it was you.” The bathroom door closed and Minghao heard Mingyu step further into the bathroom. “I just wanted to brush my teeth.”

Minghao hummed.

He heard the clattering of a toothbrush hit the tile and Mingyu curse.

“So clumsy,” Minghao called out.  

“Shut up,” Mingyu muttered.

The faucet to the sink turned on and then Mingyu cursed much more explicitly and loudly at the hot water.

Minghao had no idea how it happened, but the hot water against his body became freezing cold. The frigid temperature burned against his skin. He tried pulling back but the water pooling at his feet froze, encasing his feet against the porcelain of the tub. Minghao freaked out. He tried to rise the temperature in his body to burn through it, but his body would not move. He kicked at the ice and managed to chip at the ice at his ankles. He pulled back in pain and crashed against the shower curtain. He tried to grip the flimsy material, but he tumbled out of the tub. His back hit the tile first.  

“Minghao!”

Mingyu crouched beside him as Minghao began to shiver. Mingyu touched his shoulder. Minghao hissed and cried. Mingyu’s icy hands burned.

“Hurts,” Minghao said through his chattering teeth. Mingyu tried to touch him again to get him to sit up, but once more the pain hit him. This time, Minghao could feel tears falling freely against his cheeks. A cry fell from his lips, sounding against the whole dorm.

Rapid footsteps sounded in the hall. Minghao craned his neck and saw Seungcheol standing there.

“Mingyu get out!” Seungcheol barked out loudly.

“But!”

“Get out!”

Mingyu looked back at him but left the room.

He was pulled to sit up and felt Seungcheol wrap a towel around him. Minghao looked around the bathroom and had not realized Mingyu had caused a small snowstorm. Ice caked the walls and snow fell from the ceiling.

Minghao shivered more at the sight.

Seungcheol gripped him tightly and picked him up. He clung to Seungcheol’s neck, seeking the warmth that he felt in his pulse.

Oh god, he felt so cold. Fuck, he felt like he was going to die. He shivered more violently in Seungcheol’s arms as Seungcheol carried him to Seungcheol’s room.

“Seungcheol,” Minghao heard Jihoon. “He’s freaking out.”

“Soonyoung!” Seungcheol shouted.

“Shut up, I’m right here!” Soonyoung screamed back.

Seungcheol dropped him on his bed. Minghao reached for the sheets, clinging on to them, but realized that he couldn’t move his fingers that well. He looked up and saw both Seungcheol and Soonyoung remove their clothes.

He would have blushed if there was any heat in his body.

Both of the leaders left their boxers on and climbed in on either side of him.

Minghao felt heat on both sides and sighed, even more so as he felt Soonyoung’s powers reach inside him and calm him down.

“We need to call 911,” Jun cried out as he phased into the room.

Jeonghan came in through the door. He looked at the sight and grabbed at the blankets on his own bed and threw them over the three on the bed.

“Seungcheol’s got it, right?” Jeonghan questioned, meeting Seungcheol’s eyes.

“Yes. I got it.”

Jeonghan seemed satisfied and sat on the edge of the bed.

He touched Minghao’s hair with a towel, rubbing at it. “How are you feeling Minghao?”

Minghao wanted to answer Jeonghan, but he didn’t want to remove his mouth from Seungcheol’s warm neck.

_ Minghao, how are you feeling? _

Minghao felt weird hearing Jihoon’s voice inside his head. He scrunched his face and tried to redirect his thoughts _ : freezing, but starting to feel better. _

_ Good, I’m going to kill Mingyu for doing this to you.   _

_ It was an accident! I had the water on too hot. _

“What’s he saying?” Soonyoung asked.

Jihoon sighed, “It was an accident.”

Seungcheol pulled him closer and tighter. “I’ll talk with Mingyu later,” Seungcheol stated, voice tense.

Minghao worried what would happen to his friend but Jeonghan’s and Soonyoung’s combined touch and powers made him suddenly knock out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, I had major writer's block for this trope but I finally know where I want to take the next chapter. 
> 
> What do you think of their powers?
> 
> Follow me on [tumblr](http://mansae-for-seventeen.tumblr.com/) for updates


	4. The Justice League of Super Seventeen pt.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp i have no excuse of why this is so late...ignore typos I did not beta. I might later. 
> 
> enjoy good writing disguised as crack!

 

By the time Minghao felt better and had woken from his nap, Jeonghan and Jun had wrapped him with blankets like a burrito. The two of them helped him to the living room even though Minghao whined he didn’t need this level of care. He felt better already. 

He was seated on the couch in between Seungcheol and Chan. A few days ago, he wouldn’t have batted an eyelash at his seat placement, but now, all he could do was scoff. Seeing as Seungcheol was the leader and Chan the strongest person in the room, they were treating him like he couldn’t protect himself. He looked around the living room and saw the rest of his group. His eyes sought out Mingyu, who leaned against the doorframe into the kitchen. He refused to meet Minghao’s eyes. Minghao scowled and looked slightly to his left as Seungcheol spoke. 

“This whole messing around with powers needs to stop. Now.” Seungcheol’s tone made everyone stiffen. “Someone got hurt today.”

“I’m fine.”

“You weren’t fine a few hours ago. Mingyu—”

“—What Mingyu did was an accident, which was my fault for setting the water too hot.”

“The point still stands. I don’t want anyone using their powers anymore.”

“And what about us who can’t control them,” Jihoon asked, pointing to him and Jisoo. 

“Not using them for fun,” Seungcheol clarified. He ran his palms up and down his thighs. “We haven’t even figured out how all of you got these powers in the first place.” 

“Well considering you are the only who doesn’t have any powers, I think it would be safe to say that this is your fau—” Jisoo began. Seungcheol wanted to glare at him but not many people could glare at said man. “Sorry.”

“Does it even matter?” Junhui tentatively questioned. “If we learn to control our powers, this is something I wouldn’t mind keeping.”

Seungcheol’s lips thinned. “It’s just, when all of you accidentally turned into children, it also came with a price that you would keep aging one year every day until you died. I’m worried that every day you might lose more control of your powers.”

“It was an accident,” Minghao stated again. “I’m not loosing control of my powers. Mingyu isn’t turning the entire dorm into the North Pole, hell Seokmin isn’t hitting the ceiling right now. We are good.”

Seungcheol’s eyes were large with worry when he met them. 

Jeonghan sighed, “I think what Seungcheol is trying to say is that we shouldn’t get so used to these powers. If Seungcheol is right, and we got these powers because someone in here has to learn some sort of lesson, then we need to be careful with them. Meanwhile, we need to keep the powers in check.”

Chan forced a smile, “We’ll do that when you stop walking into my dreams.”

Jeonghan pouted, “I don’t meant to. It just happens.” 

Minghao’s eyes went back and forth between Jeonghan and Chan, and when everyone seemed plenty distracted, Minghao slowly stood up. He carefully wrapped his fingers tighter around the blanket to avoid making the most amount of movement. 

Slowly, he treaded toward Mingyu. Minghao watched intently how Mingyu’s eyes became wider with each step. It was almost comical if it weren’t for the fact that Mingyu looked ready to bolt. Minghao quickly snuck a glance over his shoulder, still making sure no one was paying attention. He made that final step and before Mingyu could escape, Minghao let go of his blanket and wrapped his hand around Mingyu’s elbow. 

Mingyu tried to peel off his fingers and Minghao sank his nails into Mingyu’s skin as warning. Mingyu cried out annoyingly, worrying Minghao that they would get caught. So he pulled him faster and to the balcony away from their group. 

Minghao let him go to shut the french window. 

Mingyu gasped and rushed to the opposite side of the balcony setting a six foot distance between them. 

Minghao scoffed, “Why are you so far?”

Mingyu pulled down the sleeves of his shirt until they were over his palms. “No reason. Isn’t it kind of cold out here for you?”

Minghao frowned. He threw the blankets off his shoulders. A slight breeze rattled his bones but his body was beginning to respond normally and quickly heated his skin. “Are you serious right now?” Minghao asked, knowing the exact reason of why Mingyu was behaving like an idiot.

Mingyu whined, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You aren’t going to hurt me.”

“But I did.”

“Is everyone deaf? It was an accident.”

“But I hurt you. Hao, I’ve never seen you like that. I was so scared I killed you.”

Minghao pressed his lips together. He wasn’t angry at Mingyu, not one bit. He couldn’t be angry at him. He pretended and joked around that he never wanted any of Mingyu’s attention. He hit and slapped him, sometimes he wrestled him to the ground in frustration, but he could never be truly angry. 

“You aren’t strong enough to kill me,” Minghao decided to say. He walked to toward the edge of the balcony and leaned against the railings.

Mingyu’s eyes scrunched and he leaned against the railing as well, still keeping the distance between them. “Why do you say that?”

Minghao grinned, “Because there is no way in hell the sidekick is going to defeat the hero.”

“Oh so I’m the sidekick in this friendship?”

“Absolutely.”

“I see myself as more of the hero.”

“I’m not your sidekick.”

“Nah, you would probably be my arch nemesis. You know, always fighting? Destined to tear the world apart. Two sides of the same coin. One can’t exist without the other.” When Minghao stared at Mingyu strangely, the other stopped. “What?”

Minghao crossed his arms on the railing and leaned down to burry his head in between his arms. “Nothing,” He replied, face heating.  He his his smile in the crook of his elbow. 

 

>>>

 

Seungcheol wanted to turn the car around. With Wonwoo and Soonyoung fighting in the backseat to Junhui silently crying over his spilt grape juice in the passenger one, Seungcheol was nearly ready to lose all patience. 

“Seungcheol!” Soonyoung whined. “Wonwoo hit me!”

“No I didn’t! Stop lying!”

Seungcheol rubbed the bridge of his nose at the five-year-old children in the backseat. “I swear if you keep fighting, I will turn this car around and no one is going to get McDonalds. And then you are going to have to explain to everyone back at the dorm why there is no food.”

He heard two tiny huffs and Seungcheol finally caught his breath. He turned the corner, pulling into the drive thru. When he felt safe enough to let go of the wheel, he checked in his compartment and threw Junhui some napkins. He glanced at the rearview mirror. Wonwoo and Soonyoung had their arms crossed over their chests while Jihoon played silently on his phone with his earphones in his ear.

Seungcheol sighed, at least one of them wasn’t causing trouble.

He looked back to the front and realized it was his turn to order. He lowered his window, cursing as the summer heat burned his face. 

“Hello, welcome to McDonald’s what would you like today?” Came a young man’s voice from the speaker. 

_ One day of peace, _ Seungcheol thought. “Umm..I need 10 mighty kids meals and a number two large please with a coke.”

“Okay that will be 54,000 won. Please pull up to the next window.”

Seungcheol sighed and continued driving forward. When the small window opened, Seungcheol gaped. A blonde man about his age, dressed in the usual red and black uniform, smiled as he greeted him. Seungcheol couldn’t even form any sentences as the man repeated his order. 

“Sir?” The McDonald's worker asked him. 

Seungcheol gaped and shook his head, “I’m sorry what?”

The man’s smile grew larger and he repeated the order once more. 

“Yeah, that’s right,” Seungcheol answered.

“Great, that will be 54,000 won.”

Seungcheol handed over his credit card. The blonde man swiped it, handed back the card and a receipt, and before Seungcheol could say anything, the drive thru window slid shut. 

Seungcheol groaned aloud in the car. He couldn’t even say anything smooth. He went to the next window and a very burly man handed him his larger order. Seungcheol put the brown paper bags by Jun’s feet and thanked the man. 

He pulled up his window and began to go down the drive-thru toward the parking lot. However, as he reached it Jun looked at him with very large eyes. “Seungcheol, I have to pee.”

Seungcheol glanced at Jun quickly. He wanted to strangle the kid as he saw four empty grape juice boxes in Jun’s lap.

“I told you, you could only have one,” Seungcheol berated, but he was already heading to an empty parking spot. He parked his beat up Toyota and set the parking brake. 

The four kiddos inside immediately took off their seat belts and rushed inside the fast food joint. Seungcheol chased after them, making sure they wouldn’t get into any trouble. When he stepped inside, his eardrums burst with the amount of commotion. A group of kids that weren’t his ran to the playground area, while another child ate ketchup off the floor. Seungcheol side-stepped them and looked for his own troublemakers. 

He caught sight of them rushing down the hall and into the restroom. Seungcheol rolled his eyes fondly and decided to wait for them by the closest table to the restroom. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his feed before he heard someone say, “Hey Sehun, I’m taking my break cover for me please.”

“Okay, just remember a break is only supposed to be fifteen minutes, Jeonghan.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Seungcheol looked up and tensed as he saw the same man from the drive thru. Seungcheol twisted his head in every direction as the man walked to him. Oh fuck, quick think of something to say.

“Hey,” Seungcheol croaked out a little high-pitched.

Jeonghan stopped and smiled.

And somehow every noise in the restaurant died. Nothing could be heard, not even the workers. Seungcheol looked around, everyone was gone. Seungcheol was momentarily confused, but Jeonghan grabbed him from his shirt and dragged him to the restroom.

Seungcheol expected to see his kids there, but the restroom was just as empty as the rest of the joint. Seungcheol could not question anything further as the man pushed him against the door and smashed his lips against his.

Oh fuck,  _ yes _ .

Seungcheol groaned and clung to the man’s shoulders. Jeonghan’s fingers hooked onto Seungcheol’s belt loops and tugged him impossibly closer. Seungcheol groaned again, his mouth parting. Spit drooled at the corner of their mouths, but Seungcheol couldn’t be bothered to care. Shamelessly, his right hand wandered without any hesitation to Jeonghan’s ass. 

Jeonghan jumped at the contact and inadvertently made his crotch rub against Seungcheol’s. Both of them gasped into each other’s mouth. Jeonghan’s hand gripped his hip, slamming him further into the door. Seungcheol moaned as Jeonghan rolled his erection beside his. 

_ “I didn’t know you dreamed about us having sex in a McDonald’s restroom.” _

Seungcheol gasped and pulled away from Jeonghan as a sudden voice echoed in the restroom.

Seungcheol’s eyes drew to— _ wait a minute _ —Jeonghan sitting on the sink, swinging his legs back and forth.  _ Wait.  _ If Jeonghan was in front of him right now but also at the sink that could only mean that he was dreaming—  

Seungcheol’s body left his mattress violently. He tumbled to the side, knocking against the dresser. The clutter of lotions, cologne, and other random shit rattled dangerously on top of the dresser. Seungcheol could see every second of it. He could see every possibility of it crashing and making a mess on the ground. Although, his mind quickly analyzed every possible outcome to avoid it. Almost in slow motion, he saw the items about to top over and he knocked his foot against the second to lowest drawer. The fall of the items shifted direction and with his foot, Seungcheol opened the last drawer. All the items fell neatly on the pile of clothes inside the drawer.

Seungcheol then fell backwards in awe. “Holy shit, I’m Batman,” He said admiring his own quick thinking. He took a few deep breaths and as he stood, he saw a pair of legs dangling off the side of the bunk bed.

Seungcheol gulped as Jeonghan sat there wide awake.

“So? Making out in McDonald’s?” Jeonghan asked, with a stupid smirk and raised eyebrow.

  
“What are you talking about?” Seungcheol turned around and began to pick up the fallen items and place them back on top of the dresser. 

“Don’t act dumb. I just walked into your dream.”

Seungcheol flushed, but still refused to face Jeonghan. “I can’t control what I dream,” Seungcheol decided to say. It didn’t satisfy Jeonghan though because he could still feel his calculating stare at the back of his head.

When he finished putting everything back and decided to turn back, Seungcheol gasped as a pillow came flying at him. And once more, Seungcheol could see it in slow motion. He dodged to the side, the pillow missing him completely and hitting the dresser. Seungcheol only stuck out his hand and the lotion bottle fell into it.

Jeonghan snorted, “Seems like you may have some powers after all.” 

Seungcheol gaped stupidly at the lotion bottle, nodding with agreement. 

 

>>>

 

It became increasingly obvious to Minghao that he was the only one unable to fully control his powers. Even Jihoon had learned to block out everyone’s thoughts and only received people’s overexcited or intrusive ones. 

Minghao felt a prickle of jealous heat under his cheeks as he watched Seungcheol, who had only discovered his powers two nights ago, use them to perfection. 

Seungcheol stood in the middle of the living room with Seungkwan, Junhui, and Soonyoung hyping him up. Seungcheol threw several coins at the wall. Each time he hit the wall, the coin bounced off the ceiling to fall neatly into the small black hat they had in the center of the floor. Seungcheol tried from different angles and each throw was successful. 

The others cheered each time Seungcheol made a hit. Wonwoo had researched with his powers and discovered that Seungcheol was a hyperkinetic, meaning that Seungcheol’s imaging systems and muscle control were perfectly in tune with the motor skills center of the brain, which made him posses flawless aim, balance, and synchronization. 

Minghao looked away before he burned the curtains—again.  

“What a hypocrite,” Jihoon muttered beside him on the floor. “Telling us we can’t use our powers when he’s there showing off.” 

Minghao shrugged in response. He turned to Jihoon who had his laptop resting on thighs with only one of his earbuds in place. 

“He’s having fun,” Minghao said bitterly. “And everyone can control their powers now so there’s no need to worry.”

Jihoon snorted, “Yeah, everyone but you.”

Minghao’s jaw clenched and a second later he heard Soonyoung shout, “Minghao!” Minghao glanced in his direction and saw the sofa’s arm on fire. Minghao huffed and took a deep breath. The flames receded and everyone back to doing their thing.  

“I can control them—somewhat,” Minghao said. 

Jihoon didn’t believe him and began to laugh. Another accidental fire seemed imminent, but Jihoon quickly waved his hands in his face. “No, I’m not laughing at you. I just got some really loud intrusive thoughts from Jeonghan.”

Minghao looked around the living room but couldn’t spot said man. Jeonghan most likely had his head buried in his blankets. When he looked back at Jihoon, the man had a large grin on his face that Minghao couldn’t help but ask what Jeonghan was saying. 

“He keeps repeating, ‘you fucking pervert, why won’t you just talk to me’ over and over again. I don’t even think he knows it,” Jihoon explained. 

“What do you think that’s about?”

“Who knows, and I kind of don’t want to—ugh.”

“What?”

“Mingyu is coming. God, his thoughts are so loud.” Jihoon then inserted his other earbud to block out anyone’s stray thoughts. 

A second later Mingyu barged into the living room. Minghao saw him slide his socked feet across the wooden floor and crash into him. Minghao pushed Mingyu but Mingyu came back to him a lot closer than Minghao wanted. His skin flushed and the pit of his stomach felt like it was churning molten lava. 

After their conversation on the balcony, Mingyu seemed to have less qualms about being near him. Although, that most likely had to with the fact that Minghao had caught Mingyu practicing with his powers several times in the bathroom. So Mingyu most likely had little worries of hurting him again. 

Mingyu leaned in close until his cold lips brushed against his ear. Minghao stiffened and his hand clutched at his own ankle. 

“I just figured out how to make the perfect consistency of ice cream with my powers,” Mingyu breathed excitedly in his ear.

Minghao huffed out air and steam escaped through his nostrils, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Cause I only made enough for two and I don’t want to share with anyone else.” 

Minghao cautiously turned to Mingyu. Mingyu nodded.

“Okay, I’ll be there in a minute,” Minghao said.

Mingyu grinned and Minghao held in the whine at the back of his throat. Mingyu got up and with his flailing limbs tried to discreetly return to the kitchen.

Not a second later, Jihoon released a noise of complaint. He leaned away from him, “Oh my god, Minghao you feel like a furnace.”

Minghao panicked and tried to collect the heat back into his body. It rippled under his skin settling comfortably there. 

He still did not quite understand why his powers acted up the most with Mingyu’s presence. He had noticed a pattern that while Minghao struggled to control his powers on a daily basis, they ran more haywire with Mingyu there. Although….there was the chance that it could be because he had a—no.

“Do you think it might be because you are fire and he’s ice?” Jihoon questioned, probably reading his mind. 

“Yeah,” Minghao agreed quickly. “Opposites.”

Definitely not because he had a crush on— _ Oh shit _ .  

Minghao snapped his head toward Jihoon praying he hadn’t read his mind, but Jihoon’s large wide eyes proved otherwise. 

“Holy shit, you have a cru—”

“Don’t say it!”

“How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know,” Minghao mumbled. He slowly stood up, “Please, don’t tell anyone.” Jihoon nodded as Minghao retreated to the kitchen. 

Fuck.

Okay, maybe it should have been fairly obvious that this entire superpowers mess was because of him. But Minghao was still in denial about his own feelings. He couldn’t be expected to handle two dilemmas at the same time.

He didn’t want to have a crush on Mingyu. He couldn’t even remember when he started getting a crush on Mingyu. It just happened, where one day he was talking to his best friend and just randomly, he thought, I want to kiss him. And from there, Minghao had decided that those feelings were a problem for another day and pushed them way way down.   

But as Minghao entered the kitchen and saw Mingyu with two bowls of ice cream, standing against the counter with a huge smile on his face, Minghao realized that problem was now today. Shit. 

 

>>>

 

“So did you wish for the witch to give you powers or something?” Jihoon asked Minghao as the rest of the group was getting their hair and makeup done for a short interview.

“I don’t exactly know,” Minghao replied, leaning against the couch. He glared at Mingyu as the stylist curled his bangs. Mingyu gave him a confused look and Minghao glared even harder, not quite sure why himself. 

“Well, I think the answer is obvious.”

“What?”

“We need to find that witch.”

Minghao sighed, knowing it to be true. It was that or burn the whole dorm to the ground which was growing more probable with each passing day. “Yeah, I’ll look for her when we get back to the dorms.”

“Good.”

“Why is that good?”

“So I can finally stop hearing everyone’s perverted thoughts and before your massive crush on Mingyu kills us all.”

A random fire emitted out a blow drier. 

Jihoon laughed obnoxiously. 

 

>>>

 

“I thought I heard you in here,” Jihoon said. 

“What? I thought I was doing a good job of keeping—oh.”

Jihoon watched as Soonyoung’s posture relaxed as he entered the practice room. Soonyoung had his iPod connected to the speakers and Soonyoung had sweat running along his forehead. 

“What are you doing in here?” Jihoon asked, although the answer seemed obvious. He chose a random spot and slid his back against the mirror, falling against the floor with a small thump. 

“New choreo...well trying.”

“Ah,” Jihoon said, understanding Soonyoung’s frustrated tone. He had been there as well, wanting burst of inspiration to come to him but never fully thriving. It had been part of the reason why he had come here. He had been fiddling with a track when he heard Soonyoung’s curses inside his head. He had put his own music to the side to hopefully help him out. 

“Where were you last night?” Soonyoung questioned, heading to him to sit beside him. 

“Hmm?”

“Mingyu said he saw you and Minghao come to the dorms late last night.”

Jihoon fiddled with his hands on his lap. “We just went out for coffee,” He half lied. The two had tried to find the witch that Minghao was sure was this old lady in this coffee shop. They had asked the staff in the cafe about her, but the staff had said no such woman existed. Both of them returned to the dorms, despondent that their search had ended so quickly. 

“You don’t normally get coffee with him.”

“No, but I’ve been talking with Minghao more so I invited him.”

“Why’s that?”

“Why’s what?”

“You talking to Minghao more?”

Jihoon thought up of a lie quickly, “I guess with the whole powers thing, I’ve just felt closer to him.”

“You mean, you’ve been eavesdropping on his thoughts?”

“Once by accident and I kind of wish I hadn’t. Although, it’s still not as bad as accidentally picking up Jeonghan’s or Seungcheol’s.”

“Do you normally read our minds?”

“I try not to,” Jihoon confessed. “What about you? Have you been using your powers for fun as of late?”

“I did change Seokmin’s mood the other day. He laughed so hard he peed himself.”

Jihoon snorted, “You’re lying.”

“Okay, well he just blew milk out his nose but it was still hilarious.” 

Jihoon shook his head in fake disapprovement. He glanced over at Soonyoung’s iPod and asked him, “What song are you working on?”

“Ummm….”

Jihoon looked at him in confusion. He wanted to delve into his head to see what Soonyoung was hiding, but Soonyoung was often open with him and confessed, “It’s kind of a song I’m working on composing.”

“Really? Can I hear it.”

“I’m nowhere near done so no.”

“When you get close to finishing, can I?”

Soonyoung seemed embarrassed at sharing his songs so Jihoon brought out the cruelest weapon: He pouted.

“Please?” Jihoon whined.

Soonyoung bursted into laughter. Jihoon was ready to follow suit, when a random thought flew his way:  _ Wow, he has the cutest baby lips.  _

Jihoon blinked as he heard that intrusive thought. Quickly, Jihoon had learned how to discriminate against an intrusive thought and versus someone’s actual thoughts. The intrusive ones always sounded muffled and far away. And that one was definitely an intrusive one. But why had Soonyoung thought of something like that?

Immediately, Soonyoung stopped laughing. 

Jihoon pushed forward his mental capabilities and heard Soonyoung’s panicked tone.  _ God, did he hear that. Please tell me he didn’t. He can’t know. Oh fuck, why isn’t he laughing anymore. Shit! He’s reading my mind. He’s going to know I’ve liked him since we were teens. Soonyoung! You might want to stop talking before he leaves. Seriously. Stop it.  _

Jihoon sat there frozen, watching Soonyoung’s eyes go through a series of emotions that even Jihoon’s powers couldn’t pick up.

But it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Someone as emotionally constipated as Jihoon could see it. 

Since they were younger, Jihoon could feel something between them. And now he knew with this mind reading thing, Soonyoung felt that something too. However, both of them hid their emotions under the surface and tried to pretend that all that laid between them was friendship. But it was difficult, especially when Jihoon remembered the circumstances before their debut. Anger, restlessness, and frustration settled deep inside Jihoon with the weight of the group's’ future placed in his hands. Everyone kept their distance during that time, even Seungcheol, but Soonyoung—he always stayed. He didn’t mind being cooped up in a room with a volatile Jihoon. 

And in that time of unexplained anger, Soonyoung calmly worked around him as if there wasn’t an ocean between them. 

Soonyoung’s hard work and optimism crashed against Jihoon’s patience at each turn. At first, the disagreements between their work was violent, on Jihoon’s part at least, but Soonyoung’s persistence made the crashing feel more like drowning. Soonyoung dragged him down into this place of shaky ground beneath the water’s surface where together they built the foundation of their group and subsequently their friendship. It took a lot of trust for Jihoon to allow someone to do that to him. 

From somewhere within, Jihoon knew it was safe to place his trust in Soonyoung—the young man, who accepted the worst parts of him and believed in him. 

Perhaps, that’s why Jihoon easily accepted he liked Soonyoung more than the others. He wanted him more than the others. And that was what terrified Jihoon to express anything aloud, preferring to keep emotions close.   

But now hearing that same want thrown at him, Jihoon wondered...

Jihoon licked his lips.  Soonyoung’s eyes tracked the movement. Jihoon decided to finally express his —  to Soonyoung. He leaned in and pressed their lips together. 

Soonyoung threw his arm casually over his shoulder, pulling him closer. Jihoon’s breath stuttered, feeling surrounded. It felt like drowning and Jihoon loved it. 

Their lips molded against each other until there wasn’t any air around them.

_ “Hey Jihoon—oh.” _

Jihoon broke away from Soonyoung. Soonyoung’s arm kept him close. Their eyes sought each other’s and feelings that were underneath slowly floated to the surface. 

Soonyoung’s smile was what did it.

Soonyoung’s voice in his head also muttering  _ Finally  _ also helped.  

“I gotta go,” Jihoon said, finally glancing at Minghao who was looking up at the ceiling with a flush of embarrassment. He looked back at Soonyoung’s utterly amazing eye scrunching smile, a rush of joy swam inside him as Soonyoung pressed his powers into him. 

“Okay,” Soonyoung nodded, pulling away. “I’ll see you at the dorms?”

“Yeah.” He got up on shaky legs. 

_ Asshole  _ Jihoon directed inside Minghao’s mind as he stalked to him.

_ You two are cute.  _ Minghao dared to think.

“What do you want?” Jihoon asked, loosing patience.

“I found the witch.” 

 

>>>

 

The birds had left the trees when Minghao sat alone in the coffee shop. His eyes roamed the small park across the street. His eyes could barely make out the details when the night wrapped around it all. 

He turned away and glanced at the lukewarm cup of coffee in his hand. His thumb rubbed along the cup’s sleeve before he downed the whole drink. He scrunched his face. Lukewarm coffee always tasted bad but he had no one to blame for that as he had been sitting in the coffee shop for over an hour.

They had a fansign tomorrow and Minghao knew he should really head back to the dorms if he wanted to avoid looking like a zombie. But, he could not find the will to move his legs. He didn’t want to head back to the dorms knowing what awaited him there. 

He had overheard Mingyu and Wonwoo speaking with each other after dance practice. Wonwoo had asked Mingyu if he had texted  _ her _ yet and why he was ignoring  _ her _ .

Minghao didn’t understand why it bothered him so much. So Mingyu had a secret girlfriend? Who cared? Lie. Yeah, wow that was a lie. Minghao cared. Too much. At first, he rationalized that he was so upset because Mingyu didn’t have the audacity to confess to him that he did have some secret girlfriend. But after a while of sitting in the coffee shop Minghao realized that wasn’t the entire truth either.

Lately, he had been seeking Mingyu’s attention more than usual. He didn’t like when Mingyu’s attention was directed somewhere else. So Minghao tried to be more touchy and rude to get any reaction from Mingyu. But nothing worked leaving Minghao more and more depressed.

“Another cup of coffee dear?”

Minghao looked up at the old lady with a brew of coffee in her hand. It took Minghao a few seconds to realize she had spoken to him in Chinese. 

“Ummm...no I should be heading out soon.”

The old woman looked around the coffee shop. There was only a couple at the corner at this late hour, so the woman felt safe enough to sit across from Minghao and pour him another cup anyway.

She placed the brew beside her and Minghao noticed how her large emerald ring caught the fluorescent light of the coffee shop. 

“What’s bugging you dear?” She asked him still in Chinese.

Minghao shrugged.

“You can tell me dear, I have all night.”

“It’s nothing,” He tried to play it off with a laugh, but she sensed the awkwardness of it. 

“Is it about a girl?”

“Something like that.”

“It always is.” She leaned forward. “Why don’t you tell her how you feel?”

Minghao shrugged again and for some reason the old woman made him want to lay everything bare, “I’m not even sure what I feel about...her.”

“Why’s that?”

“They’re my best friend.”

“Ah, I can see how that would complicate things.” She glanced outside and asked him, “How do you react when you are around them?”

Minghao’s hand pressed against his coffee and felt the heat warm his palms. He focused on that, “Like I’m burning.”

“In a good way or bad way?”

“Both.” Minghao sighed and took a sip of his drink. “I just wish there was this divine power that would make it clear whether I liked them or not.”

The old lady smiled and locked eyes with him, “I’m sure that power will come to you soon.” 

>>>

 

“So where is she?” Jihoon asked sitting shoulder to shoulder with Minghao in the booth of the cafe. 

“Shut up, she will be here,” Minghao hissed.  _ You’re just being impatient cause you want to keep making out with Soonyoung. _

“I heard that,” Jihoon chided.

“It’s the truth” Minghao looked around the coffee shop, noting the lack of people. He glanced outside the window, the night making it exceptionally difficult to do so. Okay, nearly all the same conditions. The coffee in his hand was now lukewarm so he downed it one go. 

He waited a moment and then he saw that same old lady approaching. 

Jihoon’s eyes bugged out beside him. “Did she just appear out of nowhere?”

“Yup.”

The old woman smiled when she saw Minghao and then as before she sat across from him. “What can I help you with?” She asked.

“I’ve learnt my lesson or whatever.” 

“Have you?”

“Yes.”

“And what is this supposed lesson?”

“I realized what I feel for that person” 

“And what is that?” She smirked. 

Minghao narrowed his eyes at the witch. “I’m not saying it out loud.”

“Then I’m not returning to you to normal.”

Jihoon glared at him, “Minghao as much as these powers are cool I really would like to stop hearing everyone.”

Minghao sighed, “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“Clearly it was otherwise you would be back to normal already,” She said. 

Minghao licked his lips and finally, “I don’t need to say what I feel aloud to validate that it’s true.” 

The woman stared him down, “Perhaps not but how am I supposed to make sure that it’s true?”

Jihoon scoffed, “Aren’t you supposed to be a powerful witch? Shouldn’t you be able to just tell?”

The woman looked affronted. Minghao high-fived Jihoon under the table. 

“I am very powerful,” She nearly shouted.

“Then?” Minghao asked her with a grin.

The woman narrowed her eyes and then leaned forward, “My sisters will be there when the others mess up and let it be warning my sisters are far more powerful than I.”

And like that she disappeared into thin air.

Minghao was shocked it had worked that simply, but still her threat lingered in the air for a small moment until Jihoon exclaimed. “Oh thank god, it’s finally silent.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


The other members who were having too much fun with their powers could not share the same sentiment. 

 

>>>

 

“It’s a shame I couldn’t make more ice cream before our powers went away,” Mingyu said, as he got ready to go to bed. 

Minghao sat on his own bed and watched Mingyu back and forth. The other members were still in the living room complaining about the lack of powers. “That was some good ice cream,” Minghao said. How did you guys figure it out?”

“When Seokmin fell from the ceiling.”

Minghao laughed at that, picturing it clearly.

“Soooo….”Mingyu trailed when Minghao’s giggles died down. “It was you who caused this?”

“Yeah.”

“Why did the witch find the need to give us powers anyway.”

Minghao shrugged, “She took things literally. No biggie.”

“Ah, did you learn your lesson at least?”

Minghao stared at Mingyu fondly as the other pulled on some sweats. “It wasn’t a lesson per say just something I needed to figure it out.”  

“Did you figure  _ it  _ out?”

“Yeah.”

Mingyu hopped next to him on the bed, “Are you going to tell me what it was about?”

Minghao scrunched his face deep in thought, “Nope.”

Mingyu began to giggle and Minghao joined in as well. His heart swelled with warmth, not the same burning heat from before but a nice buzz that Minghao was growing to appreciate with each second in Mingyu’s presence.

He contemplated very briefly on telling Mingyu but something bigger was eating at Minghao’s stomach that had started this power thing in the first place. So with a little caution he asked, “Hey umm...do you remember that day you and Wonwoo were talking after practice and Wonwoo mentioned you should stop ignoring this girl?”

“Yeah?”

“Who was he talking about?”

“My sister.”

“Your sister?” Another disastrous laugh piled out of Minghao’s mouth.

“What? What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” Minghao collapsed onto the bed unable to stop the wheezing.

“Wait. Did you think I had some—”

“God, no!

“You did!” 

“Didn’t!”

“Did!”

“Didn’t!”

“Alright then,” Mingyu said exaggeratedly. “I’ll just pretend you weren’t jealous.”

Minghao shot up. “I wasn’t jealous,” He snorted.

“Suuuuuure,” Mingyu teased.

Minghao felt his cheeks flush and to hide it he crashed right into Mingyu and tackled him to the ground. Mingyu released a breathy throaty kind of laugh that if one were to ask Minghao, he would say it was kind of annoying but it was painstakingly  _ Mingyu  _ that Minghao could only feel his face heat up even more.

Thankfully, Mingyu didn’t notice as he flipped their positions. 

Hopefully, Mingyu would never notice.   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tell me what you thought reviews make my day
> 
> as a side note I changed accounts on tumblr to [minghaos-tattoo](https://minghaos-tattoo.tumblr.com/)
> 
> what the next au will be???? hmmm depends on who you want to see next your options are hoshi, dk, or woozi so vote who you want in the comments!


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